Did you know that it is easy to turn ordinary milk into a rainbow of crazy colors? With only four common kitchen items, kids are thrilled by the color explosion created by the hydrophilic and hydrophobic molecules in our magic ingredient!
Watch our demonstration video, then print out a materials list and instructions to plan for this simple and fun science experiment. Easy to understand explanation of how it works is included below.
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Supplies Needed
Milk (Must be either Whole or 2%)
Food Coloring. The more colors the better
Dish Soap
Shallow Dish or Bowl
Magic Milk Science Lab Kit – Only $5
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Magic Milk Experiment Instructions
Step 1 – Pour some milk into a shallow dish or bowl until the milk covers the bottom.
Step 2 – Add some drops of food coloring on the milk. You can use a variety of colors, just be sure to add 3-4 drops of each color.
Step 3 – Add a drop of dish soap into the center of the milk.
Step 4 – Watch in amazement as the colors dances across the surface of the milk.Do you know what caused the colors to move around in the milk? Find out the answer in the how does this experiment work section below.
The key to the dancing colors in this experiment is soap! Soap molecules consist of a hydrophilic (“water-loving”) end and a hydrophobic (“water-fearing”) end. Water molecules are polar molecules that can dissolve other polar molecules. Fat (and oil) molecules are nonpolar molecules, so they cannot dissolve in water.
Milk is a mixture of water, fat, vitamins and minerals. When soap is added to the milk, it helps to separate the water and fat in the milk. When soap is mixed in with the fat and water, the hydrophobic end of the soap molecule breaks up the nonpolar fat molecules, and the hydrophilic end of the soap molecule links up with the polar water molecules. Now that the soap is connecting the fat and water, the nonpolar fat molecules can be carried by the polar water molecules.
As the soap molecules connect to the fat molecules, the molecules of the food coloring get pushed around everywhere resulting in an explosion of color! As the majority of soap molecules attach to the fat molecules and the soap spreads throughout the milk, the color explosion will slow and eventually stop. Add more soap and see if there are more fat molecules that haven’t attached to soap – if there are unattached fat molecules still, the color explosion will begin again.
This experiment works best with 2% and whole milk because they contain more fat.
Magic Milk Science Lab Kit – Only $5
Use our easy Magic Milk Science Lab Kit to grab your students’ attention without the stress of planning!
It’s everything you need tomake science easy for teachers and fun for students— using inexpensive materials you probably already have in your storage closet!
Try this experiment again using milk with different fat percentages. Try it with skim milk, 1% milk, 2% milk, whole milk, half and half, and cream. Consider even trying evaporated milk and sweetened condensed milk. See how the amount of fat affects the explosion of color!
I hope you enjoyed the experiment as much as we did. Here are some printable instructions:
Magic Rainbow Milk Science Experiment
Materials
Milk (Must be either Whole or 2%)
Food Coloring. The more colors the better
Dish Soap
Shallow Dish or Bowl
Instructions
Pour some milk into a shallow dish or bowl until the milk covers the bottom. Tip: Be sure to use either Whole or 2% Milk
Add some drops of food coloring on the milk. You can use a variety of colors, just be sure to add 3-4 drops of each color.
Add a drop of dish soap into the center of the milk
Watch in amazement as the colors dances across the surface of the milk
▶When drops of liquid dish soap are added to milk with drops of food coloring on the surface, the soap will reduce the surface tension of the milk and react with the fat. This interaction will cause the particles in the milk to move around and create swirls of color.
Since milk is mostly water, it has surface tension like water. The drops of food coloring floating on the surface tend to stay put. Liquid soap wrecks the surface tension by breaking the cohesive bonds between water molecules and allowing the colors to zing throughout the milk.
Kids must be introduced to the Magic Milk Experiment because as it helps children to understand the concepts of chemistry and different formulas. It also supports them to learn about the quantities and qualities of different solutions.
What Is the Science Behind the Magic Rainbow Milk Experiment? Through the experiment, students will observe how the chemical properties of water, fat, dish detergent, and food coloring interact in a swirl of color.
Add one drop of each of the four colors of food coloring—red, yellow, green, and blue—to the milk. Keep the drops close together in the center of the plate of milk. Find a clean cotton swab for the next part of the experiment. Predict what will happen when you touch the tip of the cotton swab to the center of the milk.
Fluctuations in pH are caused by fermentation and putrefaction (decomposition) processes. As bacterial populations grow, they begin to use up the oxygen in the milk. Adding methylene blue to milk will turn it a blue color, and it will remain blue as long as oxygen is present in the milk.
The fat in milk reacts with the compounds in dish soap to create an explosion of colors with food coloring. The key component of this experiment is a molecule known as a micelle. Micelles are molecules that are clumped together that spread out fat in milk when soap is added.
Beta-carotene is a pigment found in plants that gives yellow and orange fruits and vegetables their color. MYSTERY SOLVED! BETA CAROTENE IS WHAT IS MAKING YOUR MILK YELLOW! As you can see the health benefits of raw grass-fed milk are many and these are just the tip of the iceberg!
Simplified response: The dish soap does not mix with the milk. Instead it floats on top and spreads over the surface. As it spreads, it grabs the food colouring. Soap is a "degreaser" so the molecules in it are attacking the fat in the milk, causing motion which creates the swirling of the colours.
Imagine feeding your baby a milkshake for every meal. Well, for hooded seal pups, that's nothing. Their mother's milk contains 60% fat, the fattiest milk in the world. For comparison, the richest ice cream clocks in at only 16% fat.
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 color: there's just more fat to combine with all of those soap molecules. Try adding another drop of soap to see if there's any more movement.
What do you think will happen when we add the food coloring? What do you think will happen when we add dish soap? What did you see after we added the dish soap? What did the milk look like during the middle of the experiment?
This is why milk with a higher fat content produces a better explosion of color, there's just more fat to combine with all of those soap molecules. Fun fact: You can try this same experiment with water instead of milk and pepper instead of food colouring!
All you need is whole milk, food colouring and a little dish soap to create crazy colour explosions. Older children can use this activity to learn about emulsions. The reaction that gives the colourful display is between the fat molecules in the milk and dish soap. This is why whole milk is the best to use.
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 surface tension of the surrounding solution- the milk! The secret of the bursting colors is in the chemistry of that tiny drop of soap.
What's 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). The secret of the bursting colors is the chemistry of that tiny drop of soap.
When you heat milk and add an acid, the casein molecules unfold and reorganize into a long chain. Each casein molecule is a monomer which will hooked together with many more of itself in a repeating pattern. The polymer this forms can be scooped up and molded, which is why it is a plastic!
All liquids have chemical bonds along the surface that make the liquid form a little dome on top. You can see this effect when a droplet of water rests on wax paper. Adding soap interrupts those bonds along the surface, making the surface molecules spread out and the colors explode like fireworks!
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