Magic Milk

Very strange. So… what makes it happen? Any thoughts? Surface tension can only explain so much. John suspects that the soap is reacting with the fat in the milk, causing the churning effect. I think that’s a decent hypotheses.

Lets test it!! All those coming over for New Years, lets try this out with various fat-content-milks: Cream, Whole, 2%, 1%, Skim. We will record the results and see if the fat content changes the effect at all :)

6 Responses to Magic Milk »»


Comments

  1. Roy
    Comment by Roy | 2006/12/27 at 18:45:58

    Wow… nothing says “Happy New Year” like a science fair project :)

    [Naturally, I'll be there. sigh...]

  2. Comment by Jamie | 2006/12/28 at 15:17:10

    The soap has surfactants in its formulation. Surfactants reduce the surface tension of water by adsorbing at the liquid-gas interface. They also reduce the interfacial tension between oil and water by adsorbing at the liquid-liquid interface. Many surfactants can also assemble in the bulk solution into aggregates. Some of these aggregates are known as micelles. The concentration at which surfactants begin to form micelles is known as the critical micelle concentration or CMC. When micelles form in water, their tails form a core that is like an oil droplet, and their (ionic/polar) heads form an outer shell that maintains favorable contact with water. When surfactants assemble in oil, the aggregate is referred to as a reverse micelle. In a reverse micelle, the heads are in the core and the tails maintain favorable contact with oil.

  3. Roy
    Comment by Roy | 2006/12/28 at 16:12:48

    hmm… seems that someone visited wikipedia.

    In other words (like I mentioned to Keaven today) one end of the soap molecule likes oil and the other end likes water.

  4. Comment by keaven | 2006/12/28 at 22:32:51

    heh… you guys are great

    :roll:

  5. Comment by Jamie | 2007/01/04 at 10:59:33

    Wikipedia can be a nice source of simple information.

  6. Comment by melissa | 2007/03/21 at 13:18:59

    haha that is scarey :lol:


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