Science Fair Projects on Surface Tension

Question: Can I make food coloring swirl in milk?

Student: Landon
Grade 2
South Dakota, USA

Hypothesis: I think the dishsoap will break up the colors in mild of the molecules (little bits) in food coloring.

Materials Used:

Method

• I poured 2% mile on one plate and 1% milk on the other plate.

• I added one drop each of red, green, yellow, blue food coloring - separating thme about 1/4 a clock a part on a paper plate.

• I touched the tip of a Q-tip swab in the dishsoap.

• I then touched the colored part of the milk. The color swirled in a pretty design.

Conclusion: Milk IS mostly water, but it contains other materials like minerals. When I added soap it changed the milk solution. Molecules moved everywhere. Liquid soap wrecked the surface tension.