Microwave Soap Clouds

When I saw this post, I thought, man, we’ve gotta do that! That has my dudes’ names written all over it! That rocks! So I added Ivory soap to my shopping list (this is very important- it’s all the air in that 99.44% that makes this trick work) and waited for a lull. I crept into the kitchen and called out (in my best “you are all in trouble” voice) “Who wants to blow stuff up in the microwave?”

(crickets)

“No, really! Who wants to blow stuff up?” See if you can identify which members of the family were actually excited about this project:

Well, we got there in the end.

So, what to know before you do this: If you have a really small microwave, doing a whole bar of soap at once WILL mean you have soap all over the inside of the microwave. So be prepared to hit that “stop” button. The author of the original post mentions the soap cloud crumbling into dust. That it will, once it has cooled off completely. While it’s still warm, you’ll be able to squeeze it and form it into shapes. (Fun!) Make a note that although everything I read said you’d be done in 2 minutes or less, our microwave is lower wattage and we still had a nub of un-expanded soap left at the end. (Yes, “nub of unexpanded soap” is a phrase it never occurred to me I’d utter.)

Want to know a little more about the science?

• http://chemistry.about.com/od/demonstrationsexperiments/a/soaptrick.htm
• http://www.physicscentral.com/experiment/physicsathome/soap.cfm

I’m off to add a little water to our soap dust and press it into molds for fun bath soaps. Good luck!