Navajo Trails Adventure Summer Camp

Materials:

cake pan with edges
milk
food coloring
liquid dishwashing detergent

1. Pour milk into the cake pan until the bottom is covered.
2. Sprinkle several drops of food coloring on the milk.
3. Add a few drops of dishwashing detergent in the centers of the largest drops of coloring.
4. Watch the resulting eruption of colors.
5. If erupting slows down, try adding more food coloring and then more detergent. If the experiment will not work after awhile, begin again from clean milk and new drops of color and detergent.

Variations:
Use a clear baking pan. Have someone hold the experiment above eye level and watch the erupting colors from the bottom of the pan.

Milk contains water and fat. These two substances do not mix. Even though the milk looks like one substance, it is really separate water and fat. Detergent is a substance that will mix with water or fat. When detergent is dropped into milk, one end of the detergent molecule attaches to fat in the milk and the other end of the detergent molecule attaches to the water which causes a boiling effect.