First of all, let your kids hold the soap bars and compare how they feel. The first thing they should notice is the difference in weight. Ivory soap is much lighter than any other brand. You can ask the kids why is one brand of soap is so much lighter than the other. If they answer that there must be more air inside the Ivory soap....they are right. You can always do a buoyancy test too. Ivory soap will float, while other brands will sink.
Next, ask them what they will think will happen to a bar of soap (Ivory) that has a lot of air in it, when you put it into the microwave?
Place it on a paper towel and heat it for 1 minute. Make sure you watch what happens! It is so much fun to see the chunk of Ivory expand.
The very same thing happens to popcorn. I'm sure most kids know there is air and moisture inside corn kernels, and as the moisture inside the kernel gets heated it expands and the inside of the kernel explodes. The very same thing happens to a chunk of Ivory soap. Ivory soap is whipped full of air and therefore it contains some moisture. When you heat it up, all that moisture will make the soap expand. It hardens into a leathery, crumbly pile. Crumble it in your hands and you will get feather light soap flakes.
What will happen to other soap brands? They will simply melt or burn. Try only a small chunk. Trust me.
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