| Your Fun Family - Science |
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Expand Ivory Soap
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This experiment is super easy and the kids will love it.
All you need is a bar of Ivory soap and a microwave.
Kids make sure you have your parents permission
before using the microwave. When you are done with
this experiment you will be left with a blob a soap. If
you want to be able to still use the soap check out our
instructions on how to make Oatmeal Soap.
Instructions
1. Place the bar of Ivory soap in the middle of a piece of
paper towel or microwave safe plate. Place the whole thing
in the center of the microwave oven.
2. Cook the bar of soap on HIGH for 2 minutes. Don't take
your eyes off the bar of soap as it begins to expand and
erupt into beautiful puffy clouds.
3. Allow the soap to cool for a minute or so before touching
it. Amazing... it's puffy but rigid.
Why this happens
Ivory soap is one of the few brands of bar soap that floats
in water. If it floats in water, it must mean that it's less
dense than water. When you broke the bar of soap into
several pieces, no large pockets of air were discovered.
Ivory soap floats because it has air pumped into it during
the manufacturing process. The air-filled soap was actually
discovered by accident in 1890 by an employee at Proctor
and Gamble. While mixing up a batch of soap, the employee
forgot to turn off his mixing machine before taking his lunch
break. This caused so much air to be whipped into the soap
that the bars floated in water. The response by the public
was so favorable that Proctor and Gamble continued to whip
air into the soap and capitalized on the mistake by marketing
their new creation as The Soap that Floats! Why does the
soap expand in the microwave? This is actually very similar
to what happens when popcorn pops. Here's the secret: All
soap contains water, both in the form of water vapor inside
trapped air bubbles (particularly important in the case of
Ivory) and water that is caught up in the matrix of the soap
itself. The expanding effect is caused by the heating of the
water that is inside the soap. The water vaporizes, forming
bubbles, and the heat also causes trapped air to expand.
Likewise, the heat causes the soap itself to soften and
become pliable. This effect is actually a demonstration of
Charles' Law. When the soap is heated, the molecules of air
in the soap move faster causing them to move far away from
each other. This causes the soap to puff up and expand to
an enormous size. Charles' Law states that as the
temperature of a gas increases so does its volume. Other
brands of soap without whipped air tend to heat up and
melt in the microwave.
All you need is a bar of Ivory soap and a microwave.
Kids make sure you have your parents permission
before using the microwave. When you are done with
this experiment you will be left with a blob a soap. If
you want to be able to still use the soap check out our
instructions on how to make Oatmeal Soap.
Instructions
1. Place the bar of Ivory soap in the middle of a piece of
paper towel or microwave safe plate. Place the whole thing
in the center of the microwave oven.
2. Cook the bar of soap on HIGH for 2 minutes. Don't take
your eyes off the bar of soap as it begins to expand and
erupt into beautiful puffy clouds.
3. Allow the soap to cool for a minute or so before touching
it. Amazing... it's puffy but rigid.
Why this happens
Ivory soap is one of the few brands of bar soap that floats
in water. If it floats in water, it must mean that it's less
dense than water. When you broke the bar of soap into
several pieces, no large pockets of air were discovered.
Ivory soap floats because it has air pumped into it during
the manufacturing process. The air-filled soap was actually
discovered by accident in 1890 by an employee at Proctor
and Gamble. While mixing up a batch of soap, the employee
forgot to turn off his mixing machine before taking his lunch
break. This caused so much air to be whipped into the soap
that the bars floated in water. The response by the public
was so favorable that Proctor and Gamble continued to whip
air into the soap and capitalized on the mistake by marketing
their new creation as The Soap that Floats! Why does the
soap expand in the microwave? This is actually very similar
to what happens when popcorn pops. Here's the secret: All
soap contains water, both in the form of water vapor inside
trapped air bubbles (particularly important in the case of
Ivory) and water that is caught up in the matrix of the soap
itself. The expanding effect is caused by the heating of the
water that is inside the soap. The water vaporizes, forming
bubbles, and the heat also causes trapped air to expand.
Likewise, the heat causes the soap itself to soften and
become pliable. This effect is actually a demonstration of
Charles' Law. When the soap is heated, the molecules of air
in the soap move faster causing them to move far away from
each other. This causes the soap to puff up and expand to
an enormous size. Charles' Law states that as the
temperature of a gas increases so does its volume. Other
brands of soap without whipped air tend to heat up and
melt in the microwave.