======Color Swirling Milk====== **Materials: **{{$demo.materials_description}}\\ **Difficulty: **{{$demo.difficulty_description}}\\ **Safety: **{{$demo.safety_description}}\\ \\ **Categories:** {{$demo.categories}} \\ **Alternative titles:** Magic Milk, Soap and Milk Surface Tension ====Summary==== {{$demo.summary}} ====Procedure==== - Pour about 1–2 cm of milk into a shallow dish. - Add small drops of different food colorings spaced apart on the milk’s surface. - Dip a cotton swab into liquid dish soap so the tip is wet but not dripping. - Touch the soapy tip lightly to the milk’s surface near a color drop and watch the colors shoot away and swirl. - Move the swab to new spots (re-soap as needed) to create additional motion and patterns. ====Links==== Milk Food Coloring And Dish Soap Experiment - Incredible Science: {{youtube>rqQSlEViNpk?}}\\ Magic Milk Experiment Using Food Coloring, Dish Soap, and Milk (Chemistry) - BeardedScienceGuy: {{youtube>9XJbXy2PQhA?}}\\ 📄 Color Swirling Milk Experiment - C.S. Mott Children's Hospital: [[https://www.mottchildren.org/posts/camp-little-victors/color-swirling-milk-experiment]]\\ 📄🎞️ Milk magic - Science Museum Group: [[https://learning.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/resources/milk-magic/]]\\ ====Variations==== * Compare whole, 2%, and skim milk to see how fat content changes the motion. * Try different soaps (hand soap vs. dish soap) or dilute the soap with water to test strength effects. * Chill one dish of milk and warm another slightly to observe temperature effects on flow. ====Safety Precautions==== * Do not drink the milk. * Use a shallow, stable dish on a flat surface to prevent tipping. ====Questions to Consider==== * Why does the milk barely move until the soap touches the surface? * How does soap change surface tension, and what role do milk fats play? * Which milk (whole, 2%, skim) produced the strongest swirling, and why? * Why does the motion eventually stop even if color remains? * How would warming or cooling the milk change the patterns you see?