Soap Experiment!

As one of the final experiments in our Matter Unit, we observed what happens when soap is microwaved.  We made predictions about what might happen, and microwaved three different kinds of soap. 

We predicted that the soap would melt, but we were VERY surprised to see what happened.

 The Irish Spring Soap expanded into a strange shape.

The Dial Soap expanded into an even stranger shape!

The Ivory Soap expanded into a HUGE, fluffy cloud shape!  

It was very pretty, and the soap was very soft.

We learned that the Ivory Soap expanded so much because of the same reason it floats in water - it has hundreds of tiny pockets of air in it.  The air heats up VERY fast in the microwave, and in order for the air to escape, the soap has to expand a lot.

We had a lot of fun with this (according to one of our classmates) 

"fun, terrific, amazing, awesome, and cool" experiment.