Tie Dye Milk

Our science experiment this week resulted in an explosion of color in a dish of milk. 

• We poured milk into a glass dish making sure to cover the bottom of the dish completely.
• C and R worked together to put four drops of different colored food coloring in the middle of the dish, keeping the colors separate
• Then, they dipped cotton swabs in dish detergent and put the soapy swabs in the center of the food coloring drips
• This is what happened:

The science behind this: 
Milk contains fats and proteins, and both are sensitive to changes in the surrounding solution.  Adding the soap alters the chemical bonds that hold the proteins in the solution, and the molecules of fat and protein move in all directions.   The soap also breaks the surface tension, allowing the colors to spread.  They both thought this was a very cool experiment. 


I am linking this to Science Sunday at Adventures in Mommydom.