Fat and Colour

Today in class we have performed a Science experiment all together, so we could get our heads around what we need to do for our own Science Inquiries for Science Fair.

Fat and Colour

Statement of Purpose:

We want to find out how soap affects fat. We want to know this so we know how dish-washing products work.

Hypothesis:

We think that soap works by dissolving fat. We think that because when Mrs Rutene washes the bacon pan at home the fat doesn’t move when she puts water on it but when she use dish-washing liquid it breaks the fat up.
Here are some other hypotheses:

Fair Testing:

We used two metal trays and the same raw milk in both the trays as the fat. We also used the same food colouring in both trays. This made our test fair because all of the conditions were the same except for the water/dish-washing liquid.

Equipment:

Tray

Food colouring

Milk - wholemilk not low fat

Dish-washing Liquid

Procedure:

1. Get two metal trays and fill both with whole milk.

2. Add 3 drops of food colouring to different places in each tray.

3. In the first tray put drops of water on top of the food colouring. 

4. In the second tray put drops of dish-washing liquid on top of the food colouring.

5. Watch and record the results.

Results:

In the tray that had water added: nothing much happened except maybe it spread the colour out slightly. We could still see the fat sitting in the milk.

In the tray that had dish-washing liquid: the colours spread out which showed the fat was being spread out and we couldn’t see the fat in the milk anymore. The colors spread out like a wave and faded/mixed into each other.

Conclusion:

The experiment proved my hypothesis was incorrect because the fat didn’t dissolve, but was correct because it broke the fat up.

Discussion:

This investigation could be extended to trial more than water or dish-washing liquid to see if anything else is more effective at removing fat. It could also be extended by trialling different types of fat to see if some are easier to remove than others.