We chose the following soaps for the experiment (from top left going clockwise): tan Safeguard, white Dove, green Zest, white Ivory, tan Yardley, orange Dial and white Lever 2000. Soaps were obtained from our storage and my parents storage and a few were purchased from the store. (And, yes, the date on the picture is wrong-we're working on changing the date-more camera issues as always.)
Just as the book proclaimed! All the soaps sunk except for the Ivory bar which is floating near the top right of the bowl. Then we cut the Ivory into four chunks and placed them on a plate and "baked" it in the microwave for two minutes. We probably should have stopped at about a minute and a half because our soap souffle overflowed the plate and then it deflated a lot when it was taken out of the microwave.
Soap Souffle! It puffs up dramatically in the microwave-similar to a traditional souffle. The texture feels much drier than the original bar of Ivory. Ivory incorporates air into their soap-causing it to float in water. The resulting air bubbles also trap some water during the manufacturing process and the water then expands and evaporates when you microwave the soap. The soup souffle works just fine as soap again, just be aware that it collapses easily.
Thank you again to Secret Science: 25 Science Experiments Your Teacher Doesn't Know About by Steve Spangler which we checked out from library. And all the soaps in this experiment will finish their lives out as soap. Doing the job they were made to do-holding germs at bay, protecting the health of humans and animals alike through cleanliness, and keeping the world smelling nicer, one bar of soap at a time.
