Here’s an easy two-minute experiment you can try in your microwave. All you need is a bar of Ivory soap! (Take note that you must use Ivory soap for this project to work.)
What You Need:
- Ivory bar soap
- Knife
Directions
Step 1
Unwrap a bar of Ivory soap and cut it into six pieces with the knife.
Step 2
Place the pieces of soap on the microwave’s glass rotating tray.
Tip: Use a sheet of parchment paper below the soap to make clean up easy and quick.
Step 3
Set your microwave on HIGH and heat the bar of soap for two minutes. Watch in amazement as the bar of soap foams and “grows” to an immense size.
Step 4
Open the door of the microwave and watch the soap deflate as it cools for a few minutes. Once cooled, remove the “clouds” of soap from the microwave.
Uses for the Ivory Soap Clouds
- Break the soap cloud into small pieces and use it in the shower or bathtub.
- Reform the soap cloud with cookie cutters or hand form into shapes and use them as soap bars.
- Add a cup of borax and a cup of washing soda to the powdered Ivory bar soap to make homemade laundry detergent.
Explanation
Ivory soap is whipped with more air than most other soaps before the bar is formed, which leaves more air bubbles inside. There are so many air bubbles that Ivory soap will float away…just kidding, it won’t do that. But it will float on water, unlike most other bar soaps.
As the soap bar heats up, the trapped air bubbles expand and create the clouds of foamy soap. This is an example of Charles’s Law, or the Law of Volumes. The Law of Volumes is a term used to describe the tendency for most gases to expand when they are heated.
This experiment is an example of a physical change. The soap is the same chemical make-up as before it was microwaved, but its appearance is different. Consequently, the soap clouds may be used as you would the bar of soap before it was microwaved.
Did you think this science experiment was a blast! Like Tamawi’s Facebook page to see more at-home science projects like this!