Comments on: Microwaving Soap

By: May Lord

May Lord — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 16:58:11 +0000

I did this experiment today with my daughter. It was sooo cool. When the soap came out of the microwave, it looked and felt like whipped cream. Really cool! Loved it.
Mary Lord

By: Irene Craft

Irene Craft — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 18:55:11 +0000

Tiny warning: We had so much fun that we decided to do it two more times. Bad idea….our microwave overheated and stopped working. Thank heavens that it started working again after 15 minutes. Whew!

By: Carolyn Penkert

Carolyn Penkert — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 07:06:47 +0000

My kids were Thrilled to see the soap bubble up. They thought it looked like a cloud or cool whip. What an great experiment.

By: Corii Williams

Corii Williams — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 01:11:41 +0000

Hi aurora,
My name is Kade and I am 9. I was wondering if you can use the soap brand exact.
Thanks.

By: Aurora

Aurora — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 22:37:17 +0000

Soap is the best one that doesn’t release toxic fumes in the house…

By: Stacey Cook

Stacey Cook — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 17:04:38 +0000

Dear Aurora

We started with a used bar of ivory soap but since there was water on the outside of the bar although it did bubble it more melted than bubbled. My youngest Cameron said that it looked like an egg when it’s cooking. We then changed to a new bar and it worked just as yours did. The kids were very excited and they love their new soap mountain they get to wash with.

Thanks for such a fun experiment
Stacey – from Dryden Ontario, Canada

By: Catherine Collins

Catherine Collins — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 03:59:16 +0000

That was AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!The soap looked funny.
Does anything alse do stuff like that?

Reese

By: mahfooza ahmadi

mahfooza ahmadi — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 19:51:13 +0000

Making it was fun but the smell stank peewee

By: Lorelei Grecian

Lorelei Grecian — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 14:59:45 +0000

This was soooo fun. The bar started breaking in half and then it started moving across the plate It looked like a train chugging around the track

By: Christine Groenewald

Christine Groenewald — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 07:44:58 +0000

I love soap because it smells so nice. The soap bubbles and it has a hole in the middle.- Iera-Michelle 6

It was really cool how the soap bubbled and floated out of the soap bar – Stephan 9

We enjoyed this experiment and the conversation around it. Now just to clean the oven! Thanks for the fun, Aurora
Christine, mom of the 2 above

By: Lorelei Grecian

Lorelei Grecian — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 15:06:11 +0000

We used lever 2000 and it turned into a seal-shaped puff. Ha ha ha ha ha ha!

By: Aurora

Aurora — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 14:25:57 +0000

The amount of ‘fluff-out’ depends on how much water vapor is inside the bar of soap.

By: Terri Boyt

Terri Boyt — Sun, 18 Sep 2011 15:21:02 +0000

We used a very old bar of Ivory soap. It only fluffied a little before starting to burn. Does the age of the bar change the results????

We then tried a Dial bar. The Dial was very fluffy. Much excitment at our house!

By: Julie Kuehler

Julie Kuehler — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 18:50:32 +0000

Dear Aurora – Thank you for showing that! I thought it was cool! I can’t wait for my big brothers and sisters to try more experiments. I want to learn more about science. from Amelie (age 5)
My 13 year old daughter said, “This is so cool! I love science! Well, at least THIS science!”
As they watched the soap in the microwave, the 4 children were watching and talking about what was going on. They were feeding off of each others comments and answering the questions! Amazing to watch my kids learning like that.
Thank you!

By: Leslie Noland

Leslie Noland — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 18:12:01 +0000

We did this experiment today in our homeschool science. It was cool to see the diiference between Lever2000 and Ivory soap. The kids love playing with the soap shreds from the Ivory bar. We noticed that Ivory had a lot more air in it than Lever 2000 and the Lever soap retained heat longer.

By: Aurora

Aurora — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 17:35:18 +0000

Try making a paste with baking soda and water and use this to lightly wipe out the inside of the oven. The smell should completely disappear.

By: karen jackson

karen jackson — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 13:35:35 +0000

we did this last year (it was in a book Connor had). He added googly eyes & other stuff to make it into a “soap monster” – he cried when i finally had to get rid of it. Don’t pop popcorn in your microwave immediately after doing the soap – it absorbs the smell – nasty. We tried microwaving a cup of vinegar to get rid of the smell, it seemed to work a little.

By: Aurora

Aurora — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 03:23:41 +0000

Well, be sure you keep your grandma happy, or she might not let you borrow the microwave for your science lessons! How big it gets depends on the power of your microwave, the amount of water vapor in the soap, and how long you leave it in. What happens if you dunk your soap in water overnight and THEN put it in?

By: toni britt

toni britt — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 03:04:10 +0000

the soap in our microwave was getting so huge after just minute and 40 seconds. thats when we stopped. we actually had fun playing with the microwaved ivory soap. grandma wasnt crazy about the idea, she was watching the news, perhaps we will try it again tomorrow night! we wonder how big it will get when we do it tomorrow. what do you think folks?

By: Aurora

Aurora — Mon, 30 May 2011 19:55:22 +0000

Oh, no! What if you make a paste out of baking soda and water (so it’s like toothpaste-consistency) and scrub the inside with it? Does that help? That’s how we get stubborn smells out of our lab.

And you want to use a soap that has a lot of air mixed in – so much that it will float in water. The trick is that the Ivory company sells you soap + air, while other companies sell you just the soap. You want one with mots of air mixed in.

By: Stephanie Gillespie

Stephanie Gillespie — Mon, 30 May 2011 19:20:02 +0000

Oh boy! We should have stopped after the Ivory soap… Irish Spring soap ruined our microwave! We couldn’t get the smell out of it.

By: Ramona Moller

Ramona Moller — Sun, 29 May 2011 23:18:30 +0000

It was awsome!! The Ivory soap completely filled up the plate and almost overflowed it. We also tried a bar of Dove soap to see if it will expand, but it didn’t (it probably didn’t have enough air in it). My brother discovered that he can use the leftover Ivory soap as clay, but it was messy when he made a snowball.
Benjamin (7th grade)

By: Aurora

Aurora — Tue, 24 May 2011 12:14:08 +0000

It sounds like it worked – you don’t want to leave it in too long or it will burn, as you discovered. For soap that doesn’t turn fluffy at all but only burns, there was not enough water in the soap… which is to say there wasn’t enough air (which contains water vapor) inside your soap. The soap you want should at least float… does yours? Ivory tends to work the best for this experiment.

By: Henny van Dongen

Henny van Dongen — Tue, 24 May 2011 07:32:40 +0000

Our soap became fluffy first, and then burned. It was an awful smell.
Then we tried a handmade soap and this one melted like butter. What does this say about the composition of the soap?

Henny and Jared

By: Karen Hazen

Karen Hazen — Thu, 19 May 2011 20:23:40 +0000

Awesome experiment! Filled a dinner plate~

By: william haney

william haney — Fri, 13 May 2011 15:32:19 +0000

We used Lever 2000 and it covered the plate and nearly filled the microwave! Very cool. Thank you so much.

By: Aurora

Aurora — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 21:15:28 +0000

Try it! (You’ll want one that floats in water – that tells you that it has enough air trapped inside the soap).

By: Anna Mauch

Anna Mauch — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 18:36:27 +0000

can i use any soap?

By: Michelle Scribnock

Michelle Scribnock — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 21:37:01 +0000

it sound like fun were doing it after supper
natasha scribnock

By: Aurora

Aurora — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 20:55:44 +0000

This experiment is part of Unit 3: Matter, Lesson 2: Solids. If you look in the upper right, there’s a menu of more experiments for this area as well as reading and an introductory video. Do you see it?

By: Celeste McMillan

Celeste McMillan — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 18:50:54 +0000

We just did the experiment. It was great fun but where is the lesson that goes with it? I don’t see it.

By: Scott Reily

Scott Reily — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 14:01:46 +0000

That was awesome! I loved watching it inflate in the microwave! There is no bit that is not fluffy.
Mirella

By: Faith Wilson

Faith Wilson — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 12:54:18 +0000

that soape thing is awesome we used dove

By: Danielle Elizalde

Danielle Elizalde — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 23:05:16 +0000

cool

By: Robin Mercer

Robin Mercer — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 22:06:18 +0000

It was awesome! It was so big we had ti poot it in a huge bowl!
your experiments are so cool!

abbey mercer

By: Aurora

Aurora — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 19:44:26 +0000

Hard and fluffy at the same time – it’s still a solid.

By: Carrie Camden

Carrie Camden — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 17:18:57 +0000

Is the soap supossed to be hard after taking it out of the microwave?

By: Tara Moore

Tara Moore — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 20:09:48 +0000

It’s so cool Dalton More broth of lexi Moore

By: Tara Moore

Tara Moore — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 20:06:50 +0000

dear Aurora, I’m Lexi Moore.I just tried the stuff with soap . It was very cool !I loved it sooooooooooooooo much. You are very goodat your job and u are very pretty.Ireally wish I could meet u.Hey, I also did your plasma grape . It was sooooooooooooooo awesome! Your are so cooooooooooooolllllllllllllll. Love, Lexi Moore dathger of Tara Moore

By: Pat Pietrak

Pat Pietrak — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 16:15:42 +0000

It was so COOL!!!

By: Cynthia Sowder

Cynthia Sowder — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 20:27:02 +0000

Thank you! We’re going to try it tomorrow.

By: Aurora

Aurora — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 18:38:29 +0000

Yes, this experiment is actually part of unit 3 lesson 2 ...you can see this in the menu on the upper right corner of the page.

By: Cynthia Sowder

Cynthia Sowder — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 18:27:09 +0000

Is there a unit of study that you would suggest I could use this experiment as an introduction to the unit? You know, I can say, “We are going to start studying (the unit you suggest) and before we get started let’s do this ‘Microwaving Soap” Experiment!
Thank you,

By: Aurora

Aurora — Sun, 06 Mar 2011 18:05:05 +0000

Looks like whipped cream, feels (and smells) like soap. Feathery-soft and hot at first.

By: Carmenza Coleman Salgado

Carmenza Coleman Salgado — Sun, 06 Mar 2011 15:18:41 +0000

Is the soap soft after you microwave it? I mean, like whip cream, sort of?

By: Aurora

Aurora — Sat, 05 Mar 2011 19:06:29 +0000

That is an excellent idea!

By: priscilla williams

priscilla williams — Sat, 05 Mar 2011 06:23:31 +0000

“I learned something – how to make handsoap powder from cooking Ivory Soap”. This was a fun experiment. Thank you also for sending the DVD as it is much easier for us to see on DVD than the site. Science is fun. Next experiment, we will weigh Ivory soap before microwave and after. We think the soap will lose mass, but we may not have accurate enough scale to measure that.

By: Aurora

Aurora — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 20:15:51 +0000

You can any bar you want, but try to get one that floats when placed in water. This way it has a high air content, and since air contains water vapor, it will work for this experiment.

By: Penny Aronson

Penny Aronson — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 18:56:50 +0000

Why can’t we use any other kind of bar?

By: Aurora

Aurora — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 16:56:00 +0000

Great! You’ve found the links in the upper right corner that go with the lesson. Since these are just simple activities you can start with, it’s not at all obvious they are part of a much larger lesson and unit!