Watch What Happens When You Put Ivory Soap in the Microwave [VIDEO]
If you’re thinking, “it melts”, you’re in for a bit of a surprise.
During the summer, the school my wife teaches at hosts a week-long series of classes for the kids to be a part of where they do fun things like cook, do art projects, or conduct science experiments. To prepare she searches Google and Pintrest to see if there are any ideas she can borrow for the coming summer’s classes.
That’s how she stumbled upon this little ditty.
*I didn’t realize the flash on my phone was set to “ON” before I shot the video, so my apologies for that. Also the voices you hear are my son and wife. Notice how he asks right of the bat if I’m going to put this on the internet. He’s a quick learner.
So why does it do that? According to SteveSpanglerScience.com, the reason lies in the way they make Ivory soap. Unlike most other soaps, Proctor & Gamble (makers of Ivory), whip a ton of air into the mix before solidifying the soap and forming it into bars. The air, along with some moisture gets trapped inside tiny bubbles throughout the bar. When those bubbles get exposed to the intense heat of the microwave, they boil and expand causing the soap to essentially foam up.
A couple of notes if you choose to do this at home, be sure to put a layer of wax paper down on the plate, this will help you remove the resulting fluff easier and it keeps you from having to wash one more plate. Also, the fluff will be pretty hot when you first open the microwave door, so try to resist the urge to touch it right away. On the bright side, it cools down quickly, so you won’t have to wait long.
Once it has cooled off, I suppose you could use it like regular soap, however with nearly all the moisture gone, it becomes a crumbly mess so you might be better off just pitching it in the trash. Either way, it will leave your kitchen smelling linen fresh for a few minutes, so there’s that.