1. Milk Lab Report - Shall we dance?

  The original "Dancing Milk" experiment: www.youtube.com/watch?v=_oC1FlJBsVA

  As you can see, the strong mixing reaction of milk and soap led to the diffusion of food colorings on the surface of the milk in this experiment. But the question is what caused this type of reaction?

  My hypothesis was that the pH scales of milk and soap are responsible for this type of reaction, since milk is acid and soap is base (alkaline). Therefore Blake and I conducted the lab with soap as the variable.

Procedure:

1.       Take 3 containers in the same scale, and fill them with milk

2.       Drop a few drops of food colorings around the centers of the 3 pans

3.       For the first container, put a drop of soap (base) at the center of the pan; for the second container, put a drop of water (neutral) at the center; for the last container, put a drop of vinegar (acid) at the center.

4.       Wait for a few seconds to find change in colors for the 3 containers, and record the results.

The picture at the top was the result for our 1st container.

This is the result of second container:

 

As you can see, no change in colors is involved in the 2nd container. The same result occurred in the 3rd container as well.

Therefore, we believe that the pH scales of milk and soap are involved in the experiment, as well as the involvement of soap as a surfectant to decrease the surface tension of milk.

by Andy Liu '15