Chemists are always working with new chemicals and trying to find out which ones clean best. Some everyday foods found around the kitchen make good cleaners, too, but which ones?
Things Required:
Piece of white cotton cloth
Margarine, oil, or butter (To stain cloth) Paper towels
1/4 piece of lemon
1/4 piece of onion
Vinegar
1/2 cup of whole milk
Marking pen
Directions:
With the margarine, oil, or butter, make several grease marks or stains on the cloth. Make certain they are not too close together. Take the cloth and spread it out on a hard kitchen surface. Squeeze some lemon juice onto a paper towel and, while holding the cloth against the hard surface, rub the juice on the towel against one of the marks. Rub hard and try to remove the stain. Crush the onion in another paper towel to make some juice and try to remove a second stain with it in the same way. Do the same with the other two substances. Make certain you record on the cloth the substances you used to clean the different grease stains.
This Is What Happens:
The lemon, onion, and vinegar remove stains a little, but not so well as the milk does.
Science Behind It:
The milk does a better job of neutralizing or canceling out the stains. The butterfat in whole milk will dissolve grease stains such as that caused by fat in butter or margarine. Substances that have similar fat-content will dissolve with one another.
