Ivory Soap Explosion

Item #28 on our Summer List is "Do a Science Experiment."  I had more than one simple experiment in mind when I wrote that on our list, but some days I just do one cool thing and consider that I've done my part to be fun for the day.

We actually did this little experiment on the same day that we made all the Science Discovery Bottles.  Later in the day, after Gracen came back to our house, we followed the simple instructions here at Mom to 2 Posh Little Divas.   

I had purchased Ivory bar soap at Walmart.  I unwrapped one bar and cut it into four pieces.

I put ONE piece of soap on a paper towel in the microwave.  Our microwave was seriously gross prior to this experiment, so I figured getting soap in the microwave couldn't hurt anything.

I pulled chairs over in front of the microwave so the little kids could stand on them.  The kids watched as I started the microwave. 

The directions said to microwave for 1-2 minutes, but ours definitely needed less than 1 minute.  I'd recommend about 45 seconds. 

I opened the door and we marveled at our big white soap cloud.  By the time I took this photo, it had somewhat deflated:

I wanted the bigger kids to also get a front row view, so we microwaved another piece of Ivory with just Gracen and Layla watching.

I got a better photo of the second Ivory explosion:

I dumped each microwaved piece of soap into a foil pan so the kids could play with it.  It was super light and felt like tissue paper.

We microwaved a third piece for anyone who wanted to watch.

The funniest part of this whole experience was that the kids could not stand the smell of the Ivory soap!

They were seriously grossed out by it.  That's why we never got to the fourth piece of soap.  We threw away the exploded soap in our big outside garbage can. 

Griffin even said, "Mom, can I go back to my room for naps now so I don't have to smell that smell?"

I was just cracking up the whole time because the kids were genuinely grossed out by soap.

The soap that did get on the microwave walls just wiped off (it was like pieces of tissue stuck to the walls).  I needed to clean my microwave and get rid of the soap smell, so I used the trick of microwaving water with lemon juice (I use a glass measuring cup) and letting it sit in the microwave for a bit.  It loosened all the bits of food and freshened the smell inside the microwave.

This was a cheap, easy, quick activity.  We will clearly not be doing it again (or ever be using Ivory soap!) due to everyone hating the smell.  It was entertaining though and something fun to do with our afternoon.

Jessica