How does homemade lava lamp work

After a few minutes the reaction will settle down. To start it again, simply add more Alka Seltzer. If you want to store the container and use it at a later time simply set it somewhere safe.

If you need to put a lid on the container, make sure the reaction has completely stopped as a gas is released and a build up of pressure from the reaction could cause the container to rupture if you place a lid on it. Instead of vegetable oil you can use baby oil. We found it created a lot of bubbles and the clarity of the lava lamp was not as good, but it does still work.

If you ever make bath bombs like us, you already have the ingredients on hand! Simple mix 2 parts baking soda with 1 part citric acid. Add a teaspoon of the mixture and watch the reaction go! The best part is how this helps kids understand that it is once again an acid-base reaction charging our lava lamps. We love those acid-base reactions! Now, what can you use instead of water? Well we came up with a cool solution that gives our homemade lava lamps glow power!

After building our first Bubble Bottle my son announced that he wanted to try it with Tonic Water instead of plain water to see if we could make a Glow Lava Lamp. Always ready to take things up a notch we decided to go for it. And it worked! In fact, it resulted in some really cool and unexpected results. The food colouring sat in a layer between the oil and tonic water, only mixing once we added the antacid. We then tried adding two different colours. With water as the base the colours started diffusing and blending right away.

But with the tonic water the beads of colours once again sat on top of the tonic water. When we added the antacid the food colouring started diffusing but not before creating beads of colour in both colours before they slowly blended together to create our new colour.

Instead of food colouring we added some glow in the dark pigment Photoluminescent pigment to the water. The best part was that this one glowed without needing a black light. Although you can use the black light too. This is the same glow in the dark powder we used in our Glow Moon Dough.

First, it is a wonderful demonstration about density. Background If you look around your kitchen, there are probably a lot of different liquids, including water, juice, milk and oil. Many of these liquids have different properties that you can see, feel and taste.

For example, they all have different densities the amount of mass per unit of volume. Many common household liquids such as juice and milk have a density very close to that of water, so you might not notice a difference.

Oil, however, has a lower density than water, meaning it can float on top of water. It is buoyant. You can see this if you try putting a few drops of oil in a glass of water—they will float on the surface. Liquids are all made up of molecules that have different chemical properties. Some molecules are polar, meaning they have unbalanced electrical charges. These molecules tend to mix with one another better than they mix with nonpolar molecules, which have evenly distributed charges.

You can observe this if you try mixing different liquids together. What can you do with all this information? Observations and results When you pour the oil into the glass you should see it does not mix with the water—it forms a separate, clear layer on top. This occurs for two reasons: First, the oil and water are different densities—the oil is lighter, so it stays on top. Second, the water and food coloring molecules are polar, so they are strongly attracted to one another.

When you drop an Alka—Seltzer tablet into the glass, it sinks to the bottom. It sinks straight through the oil without any chemical reactions occurring. When it touches the water, however, a chemical reaction occurs that releases carbon dioxide gas bubbles.

When they reach the surface, the gas bubbles pop and the water droplets sink back to the bottom—creating a lava lamp effect. Eventually the Alka—Seltzer tablet will be completely consumed, and the chemical reaction will stop.

If you let the glass sit still, all the water droplets will sink back to the bottom. Remember, they don't want to mix with the oil. But as long as you have more tablets, you can keep the reaction going! A few drops go a long way! Sprinkle in glitter for extra sparkle. Pour salt into the jar until you see the cool lava lamp effect. When the bubbles stop, add more salt to see it again. Oil is lighter, or less dense, than water, so it rises to the surface. Salt is heavier, or more dense, than water, and sinks to the bottom.

When you add the salt, blobs of oil attach to the grains and sink. Then the salt dissolves, and the oil returns to the top. The result? A liquid show for the eyes. All rights reserved.