Making a homemade lava lamp is a fun and easy science experiment you can do with your kids. Here’s how to do it:
Materials:
- Clear plastic bottle or jar with a tight-fitting lid
- Vegetable oil
- Water
- Food coloring
- Alka-Seltzer tablet
Instructions:
- Fill the bottle or jar about 3/4 full with vegetable oil.
- Fill the rest of the bottle or jar with water, leaving about 1 inch of space at the top.
- Add several drops of food coloring to the bottle or jar. You can use any color you like.
- Break an Alka-Seltzer tablet into several small pieces.
- Drop one of the Alka-Seltzer pieces into the bottle or jar and watch the lava lamp come to life!
- As the Alka-Seltzer dissolves, it will create a chemical reaction with the water and release carbon dioxide gas bubbles. These bubbles will rise to the top of the bottle, carrying some of the colored water with them. When the bubbles reach the top, they will pop and the colored water will sink back down to the bottom, creating the “lava lamp” effect.
You can experiment with different amounts of food coloring and Alka-Seltzer tablets to create different colors and speeds of bubbles. And be sure to supervise younger children during this activity, as the Alka-Seltzer tablets can be a choking hazard.