ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Emulsion test

Have you ever seen oil and vinegar in a salad dressing? They don't mix together very well, right? Oil is a type of liquid that is not soluble in water, which means it doesn't easily dissolve in water. But if you shake the oil and vinegar really hard, you can create something called an emulsion.
An emulsion is a mixture of two liquids that don't normally mix well together. In cooking, you often see emulsions in mixtures like mayonnaise or hollandaise sauce.

The emulsion test is a way for scientists to check if a liquid is an emulsion. This is important for things like medicine or cosmetics, where you need to make sure the ingredients stay mixed together properly.

To do an emulsion test, you take a small amount of the liquid and mix it with a special liquid called a reagent. This reagent can detect if there are tiny droplets of oil mixed in with the other liquid.

When you mix the two liquids together and shake them up, if the liquid turns cloudy or milky, that means it is an emulsion. This happens because the oil droplets get suspended in the other liquid and create a cloudy or milky appearance.

So, the emulsion test is just a way to check if two liquids that don't mix well together can be mixed together with the help of some extra ingredients.