Question

Imagine that you used a magic marker to taken notes in your biology class. One of your classmates accidentally spilled her water on your notes. As the water is absorbed across the paper in your notebook, the ink from your magic marker moves with it, leaving bands of different colors behind on the page. What does this say about the ink you used? What has occurred here?

Answer 1

It says that the marker ink is probably water soluble. The water-soluble markers are often non-toxic and the color is washable, thus can easily be diluted.

When it is on a paper and comes in touch with water it may occur a watercolor like effect. What happened can be compare to a chromatography experiment, where the colors migrate with the water (mobile phase) through the paper and separate from each other. The chromatography separates the different pigments on the magic marker.