We wanted to make some Ivory soap explode. Have you tried it? It’s fun. I first saw it on another blog, Wendolonia.
Cadillac said he couldn’t spare any soap (which reminds me of that Seinfeld episode about the toilet paper. Can’t spare a square) so today I bought a twelve pack and cut a bar in half. Yay! Soap at last.
Take the half bar of soap and put it on a plate. Paper or regular ceramic.
Set the microwave for 2 minutes.
Ours was quite poofed out at only 1 minute.
That is that. It wasn’t too hot, so we could touch it. You can also use it after it cools.
Oh, the science.
The science is this. Ivory was invented accidentally when some soap mixer dude left the mixer on and went to lunch or something. When he got back, the soap was mixed too well, so there were a bunch of air bubbles in it. But people liked it. That’s why it’s the “soap that floats.”
When you heat the air bubbles, they expand. Poof!
I guess you could try it with another bar of soap to compare, but I am not going to sacrifice my Dove. (Yes, I don’t have a square to spare, either!)
The whole thing takes about five minutes, so don’t try to make it into an hour lesson plan or anything.
Here’s the Seinfeld bit, if you care:
MARGARET DILLOWAY 
This looks like something my kids would enjoy! I’ll have to try it!
You should!
Also, I wanted to note that while we used it as soap, it flaked like crazy and collected in the bottom of the sink. In other words, messy.