What was happening?
Milk is mostly water, but it also contains vitamins, minerals, proteins, and tiny droplets of fat suspended in solution. Fats and proteins are sensitive to changes in the surrounding solution (the milk). When dish soap is added it mixes with the fats and proteins.
The molecules of fat bend, roll, and twist in all directions as the soap molecules race around to join up with the fat molecules. During this reaction the food colouring molecules are bumped and shoved everywhere, causing the colours to mix up.
As the soap becomes evenly mixed with the milk, the action slows down and eventually stops. This is why milk with a higher fat content produces a better explosion of colour — there’s just more fat to combine with all of those soap molecules.
We believe this is a chemical reaction because the reaction cannot be reversed and the chemical makeup of the milk has changed.
Oh so jealous Tristan had seen this experiment and now you have beaten him to it. Perhaps you can show the video to room 13
ReplyDeleteLooks like lots of fun room 3 next time you could add more colours great work.
ReplyDeleteThis is awesome. My hands are now dyed multi-colours from trying it with lots of different colours!
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