This Lava Lamp Experiment is so cool to have a look at and even cooler once you watch it glow! This straightforward step-by-step image tutorial exhibits you learn how to make lava lamps utilizing 5 elements.

As at all times, all actions seen on the Enjoyable With Mama web site must be completed below shut grownup supervision. Don’t enable your little one to place any of those supplies of their mouth.
Lava Lamp Science Experiment
We love straightforward science experiments. Particularly ones that require minimal supplies, which can be straightforward to scrub up, and have a wow issue (just like the skittles science experiment.) The primary time we tried this easy science experiment my children had been actually blown away by the outcomes.
This home made lava lamp science exercise was simply as thrilling and can train kids extra about science ideas like chemical reactions, density, and polarity by way of a hands-on exercise.
Earlier than you start this straightforward science experiment, ask your little one to make a speculation.
Some inquiries to ask your little one may very well be:
- Do you suppose the oil and water will combine?
- Will the meals coloring combine into the oil and alter it’s shade?
- Will the meals coloring change the colour of the water?
- Do you suppose the pill will float on the prime? Or will the pill sink?

Prompt Provides To Make Your Personal Selfmade Lava Lamp:
- Alka Seltzer Tablets (which is sodium bicarbonate). You’ll use 1 entire pill for 4 cups.
- Meals Coloring
- Water
- Low-cost Vegetable oil ( I used Canola oil)
- A transparent container – You should use glasses, soda bottles, empty water bottles, or heavyweight cups.
Most of those provides are widespread home goods you seemingly have already got at dwelling.
Video Of The DIY Lava Lamp Experiment In Motion
How do you make a lava lamp experiment?
Start by ensuring you will have all gadgets wanted for the experiment.
I like to position our actions on trays. This helps forestall spills on our ground and carpet.

Step 1: Add 1/4 cup of water to three of your empty cups. Add a number of drops of meals coloring to those glasses and blend.

Step 2: Fill the opposite 3 empty cups with 1/2 – 3/4 cup oil.
Step 3: Pour the coloured water into the oil containers.
This half is fairly to have a look at.
You will note that the coloured water will drop to the underside of the glass and the oil will transfer to the highest of the water.
You may clarify to your kids how oil and water don’t combine as a result of they’ve a special density… that’s the reason you see the separation of colours.

Step 4: Break your Alka Seltzer tablets into 4 items. (you need to use extra of the pill per glass when you favor.)
Step 5: Begin throwing the antacid tablets, that are the Alka Seltzer tablets, into the combination slowly.

Watch the cool lava lamp impact. Who knew blobs of coloured water may very well be so fairly?
When the colourful blobs cease effervescent, the pill is dissolved.
Make it glow
Go right into a darkish room with a flashlight. Place the flashlight below the lava lamp and watch the way it glows. The lava lamp bubbles look SO spectacular.

The science behind the Lava Lamp Experiment
Effectively, how does the lava lamp experiment work? Right here is the science behind the experiment and the phrases you need to know.
Density refers to how compact a substance is. Denser liquid sinks. The upper-density liquid will sink beneath the one with decrease density.
The oil floats on prime of the water as a result of the density of oil is much less dense than water (so it’s lighter.)
Meals shade has the identical density as water, which is why it solely mixes with the water and doesn’t combine with the oil.
Polarity signifies that a molecule has a constructive cost on one finish and a unfavorable cost on the opposite finish. Water molecules can join their constructive ends to a different water molecule’s unfavorable finish. They act like magnets and stick to one another.
The water and oil don’t combine as a result of the oil molecules are non-polar, so they aren’t interested in the water molecules. Water is a polar molecule. They’re made up of extremely charged compounds which can be hydrophilic.
Alka Seltzer tablets are made up of sodium bicarbonate as the bottom and citric acid. It then turns into sodium citrate when blended with water.
When the pill is added to water, it sinks to the underside after which begins to dissolve. The acid and the bottom react to kind a gasoline known as carbon dioxide. This gasoline is launched within the type of carbon dioxide gasoline bubbles.
Fuel or air is lighter than water, so it floats to the highest.
A number of the coloured water is delivered to the highest with the air bubbles. When the bubbles of carbon dioxide gasoline pop, the air releases out of the coloured water blobs, and the water droplets get heavy and sink.
It’s going to proceed to do that till the tablets dissolve.
I hope you loved this enjoyable DIY lava lamp exercise and that your kids have gained some data about liquid density.
You may adapt the exercise to make it seasonal through the use of seasonal colours. For instance, make a Christmas lava lamp through the use of 2 glasses. One purple one and one inexperienced one.
Are you on the lookout for extra enjoyable and straightforward science actions for teenagers of all ages? Take a look at one in all these enjoyable actions:
Don’t overlook to take a look at extra of our science experiments for teenagers.
Discover ways to make slime right here. Create a volcano science challenge right here.
Take a look at these 29+ Finest Science Honest Venture Concepts.
This submit was initially revealed on February 8, 2018.
