Magic Milk

I'm supposed to be doing a couple of posts about making your own flowers. The pics for the posts are on my laptop at home where I don't have internet access but my work computers are set up to reject external USB drives/discs so I can't upload the pics until I get to an internet cafe. 

So, in the meantime, please enjoy... Magic Milk

I love quirky activities that just use a few cheap items from around the home. Love, love, love them. So I love this one! 

Requirements:

• Bowl
• Cotton swab or toothpick or similar
• milk
• food dye
• soap (dish detergent, handwash, shampoo etc)

Gather your supplies. I also had babywipes and papertowel on hand for spills. better safe than sorry! 

Pour the milk into the bowl and add a few drops of food colouring.

This looks kinda pretty as it is!! I think Miss 4 enjoyed herself. 

Squirt some soap onto one cotton swab (I squirted the soap onto the mat and dipped the swab in)

Dab the milk with the un-soaped cotton swab (I said "dab", not swirl, oops, oh well, that's what happens when you let an excited 4 yr old loose with cotton swabs and food dye, haha! And yes, that's my hand holding the swab for the photo to show how the dye clings to the swab rather than being repelled by it) What happens? Not much (well this looks pretty all swirled up) the dye just sits on top of the milk, barely moving. 

Next, try with the soaped up cotton swab. As you can see, Miss 4 dabbed (yey, dabbed) right in the centre and what happened? The dye pushed out in a circle and then started to move back in towards the centre again. 

Next step: push the limits. I squirted some soap directly into the milk. 

What happened? The dye shot out to the edge again, then sank, then.... 

...rose to the surface in this beautiful opalescent pattern and continued swirling. 

If you'd like to view a video of what it looks like (not my video, just one I found) then click here. 

If you'd like to try and understand the science behind it, click here. 

Laura xx