Soapy Science

This science experiment has been on my to do list for years.  We finally did it yesterday.  I gathered all of the bars of soap in our house and the bar of Ivory I bought just for this experiment.

 We began by smelling all of them, just for fun.

Then I asked the girls if they thought the soap would sink or float.  They both said the bars of soap would all sink; they were mostly right.  Ivory floats because air is pumped into it during the manufacturing process.

I then asked what would happen if we put the Ivory soap in the microwave.  Reagan hypothesized that since it has air in it, the soap would expand - bright girl.  She also knew that since the other soaps do not have air in them, they would melt in the  microwave.  We couldn't end with the hypothesis, so here is the Ivory in the microwave.

 Both girls enjoyed playing with the big cloud of soap, and they even brought it into the tub.

Later, for the sake of comparison, we had to microwave a marshmallow, of course.