Is this Science or Art? (Part I)

Hailey's begs for amazement. Something really exciting to do. Usually it's a tall order to find something that really wows her, especially if it doesn't take all day to set up and clean up from. But this is a good project that takes very little time, very little clean up, and made Hailey mildly impressed at her mom and all the cool things she knows. It was mild, though.

You need:

• a paper plate
• milk (they say the fattier the better, but we just used skim, and it worked out just fine.)
• food coloring
• dish soap
• Q-tips are helpful
  

1. pour just enough milk on the paper plate to cover the bottom.



2. put a few drops of food coloring in the milk.



3. Dip a Q-tip in the dish soap, and then touch it to the surface of the milk for 5-10 seconds.



4. watch the colors explode! The colors will shift around and move for about 5 minutes without ever mixing together like they do in water. Hailey thought it looked like a very small fireworks show.



Why does this happen? The dish soap breaks down the fatty proteins of the milk that causes the movement, and it continues to move until the soap runs out of proteins to come in contact with it. I'm no chemist, so if that's not correct, go find yourself someone who's smart to explain it. It doesn't really matter in our house, because Hailey didn't really care about the "why" anyway.