I saw this Milk Art experiment on Evie S‘s blog yesterday and had to let Will try it out. The wow-factor is huge, but please believe me when I say it’s incredibly easy. I’ll let Will take over now.
This is Will speaking. The first thing to do is gather your materials. You need a shallow plate, milk (preferably whole milk because it’s the fattiest), food coloring, and dish soap. Pour milk onto your plate so it fills it up without spilling over. Then add a few drops of food coloring in as many colors as you want. Then pour a small drop of dish soap in the middle of the food coloring and watch what happens.
The colors start to move all over the place. This happens because the milk is a lot more dense and fatty than the food coloring. So the food coloring just floats around, suspended, in the milk. But when you add the dish soap, it breaks up the fat. As the fat molecules expand and move around they cause the milk to move, too. And the food coloring comes along for the ride.
Mom here: Thank you, Will! The best part about this experiment is the surprised and delighted reactions. When you add the dish soap, the colors dance all around making different patterns. It really is gorgeous to watch. Give it a try!
{originally spotted on Household Hacker}
Very cool Will, the artistic scientist. Way to keep your brain spinning during the school off-season. I don’t suppose there is any way to preserve or dry out the artwork. Perhaps have to take a picture of really good designs.
Great idea – my kiddos would love it. Have you tried milk painting on bread yet? You color the milk, paint on bread, then toast it. So neat!
Michelle, what a cool idea. We’ll give it a try!