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One of my favorite things that came from the Hippie Era is the Lava Lamp...I could be mesmerized by one of those for hours, watching those bubbles floating up and down relaxes me. So when I sawSteve Spangler present a quick, easy way to make one here in my own home; with products most people have lying around, I was very excited to give it a try.
For today's psychedelic experiment you will need the following items:
Clean, plastic soda bottle, glass, jar with a lid. Vegetable oil (we used No Name Canola Oil) Food coloring Alka-Seltzer tablet (or those coloured bath timefizzy tablets) Flashlight Water Start by filling your jar 3/4 of the way with Vegetable Oil and fill in the remaining space with water. Fill it almost to the top but not to overflowing as you want to have room for the lid. Now you will need to add in about 10 drops of food colouring...you want to make the colour you choose quite dark inside your jar, so that it will show up clearly through all the bubbles.
Ready for some bubbling action? You can either leave your jar on the table top and shine the light of your flashlight in from the side or have someone hold your flashlight, shining upwards and balance the jar on top of the light...Take out one of your fizzy tablets and drop it into the jar...and cover with the lid.
Here is a quick video of our jar balancing on a flashlight.
Beautiful isn't it?
You can do it over and over again. We have had our jar sitting here now for at least 2 weeks and it still bubbles and fizzes when we add tablets today. In fact I find that the bubbles are that much closer to that of a real lava lamp when the mixture has been sitting for a while. Any idea why that would be? If you know please leave it in the comments below as I am curious about the reasoning behind it. If you are interested in more than the WOW factor please make sure to stop by and visit Scientist Steve Spangler and allow him to share the science behind what is actually happening when you place the tablet in the water and oil mix. Go Be a Kid...Fizz and Bubble your way into the past. Please feel free to share your results below ... The Bears and I would love to hear from you.
