Continued on back
Lava Lamp in a Bottle
What You Need
• Clean plastic soda or water bottle
• Soda or water bottle cap
• Vegetable oil
• Alka-Seltzer tablet
• Water
• Food coloring
What To Do
1. Fill the bottle 1/2 full with vegetable oil.
2. Fill the rest of the bottle with water (almost to the top but not overflowing).
3. Add about 10 drops of food coloring. Be sure to make the water fairly dark
in color. Notice that the food coloring only colors the water and not the oil.
Hmmm...
4. Divide the Alka-Seltzer tablet into 8 pieces.
5. Drop one of the tiny pieces of Alka-Seltzer into the oil and water mixture.
Watch what happens. When the bubbling stops, add another piece of
Alka-Seltzer. It’s just like a lava lamp!
6. When you have used up all of the Alka-Seltzer tablet and the bubbling has
completely stopped, screw on the bottle cap. Tip the bottle back and forth
and watch a wave appear. The tiny droplets of liquid join together to make
one big lava-like blob.
A STEM in the Park
Take Home Activity
A STEM in the Park
Take Home Activity
Continued on back
Lava Lamp in a Bottle
What You Need
• Clean plastic soda or water bottle
• Soda or water bottle cap
• Vegetable oil
• Alka-Seltzer tablet
• Water
• Food coloring
What To Do
1. Fill the bottle 1/2 full with vegetable oil.
2. Fill the rest of the bottle with water (almost to the top but not overflowing).
3. Add about 10 drops of food coloring. Be sure to make the water fairly dark
in color. Notice that the food coloring only colors the water and not the oil.
Hmmm...
4. Divide the Alka-Seltzer tablet into 8 pieces.
5. Drop one of the tiny pieces of Alka-Seltzer into the oil and water mixture.
Watch what happens. When the bubbling stops, add another piece of
Alka-Seltzer. It’s just like a lava lamp!
6. When you have used up all of the Alka-Seltzer tablet and the bubbling has
completely stopped, screw on the bottle cap. Tip the bottle back and forth
and watch a wave appear. The tiny droplets of liquid join together to make
one big lava-like blob.
A STEM in the Park
Take Home Activity
A STEM in the Park
Take Home Activity
Observe...
Predict what adding the Alka-Seltzer tablet will do to the oil and water in the
bottle and watch how it happens. The molecules of water do not like to mix
with the molecules of oil. Even if you try to shake up the bottle, the oil breaks
up into small little drops, but the oil doesn’t mix with the water. Also, food
coloring only mixes with water. It does not color the oil. When you pour the
water into the bottle with the oil, the water sinks to the bottom and the oil
floats to the top. The oil floats on top of the water. Oil floats on the surface
because water is heavier than oil. This means that water is denser than the oil.
The Alka-Seltzer tablet reacts with the water to make tiny bubbles of carbon
dioxide gas. These bubbles attach themselves to the blobs of colored water
and cause them to float to the surface. When the bubbles pop, the color blobs
sink back to the bottom of the bottle. Now that’s a burst of color.
Learn...
Oil and water do not mix because of the different densities of water and oil.
Density is defined as how many “particles” you can pack into the same
amount of space. The oil floats on top of the water because there are fewer
"particles" in the oil compared to the water, making the water heavier so it
sinks to the bottom. The density of carbon dioxide is also different from water
and oil. This causes the water particles to float in the oil even though the
water is denser. The water can float because it hitches a ride on the carbon
dioxide which is a gas and is less dense than both water and oil because the
particles are very far apart.
Investigate...
What do you think would happen if you make a lava lamp with different
proportions of water and oil, such as ¾ oil or ¼ oil? Try it to see what
happens. Does the lava lamp react the same way with the different
proportions? Are the bubbles any different? Does it take longer to react?
Finally take a flashlight and put it underneath your lava lamp and see
what happens.
This activity is brought to you by the Science
and Math Education in Action program at BGSU.
www.bgsu.edu/action
Observe...
Predict what adding the Alka-Seltzer tablet will do to the oil and water in the
bottle and watch how it happens. The molecules of water do not like to mix
with the molecules of oil. Even if you try to shake up the bottle, the oil breaks
up into small little drops, but the oil doesn’t mix with the water. Also, food
coloring only mixes with water. It does not color the oil. When you pour the
water into the bottle with the oil, the water sinks to the bottom and the oil
floats to the top. The oil floats on top of the water. Oil floats on the surface
because water is heavier than oil. This means that water is denser than the oil.
The Alka-Seltzer tablet reacts with the water to make tiny bubbles of carbon
dioxide gas. These bubbles attach themselves to the blobs of colored water
and cause them to float to the surface. When the bubbles pop, the color blobs
sink back to the bottom of the bottle. Now that’s a burst of color.
Learn...
Oil and water do not mix because of the different densities of water and oil.
Density is defined as how many “particles” you can pack into the same
amount of space. The oil floats on top of the water because there are fewer
"particles" in the oil compared to the water, making the water heavier so it
sinks to the bottom. The density of carbon dioxide is also different from water
and oil. This causes the water particles to float in the oil even though the
water is denser. The water can float because it hitches a ride on the carbon
dioxide which is a gas and is less dense than both water and oil because the
particles are very far apart.
Investigate...
What do you think would happen if you make a lava lamp with different
proportions of water and oil, such as ¾ oil or ¼ oil? Try it to see what
happens. Does the lava lamp react the same way with the different
proportions? Are the bubbles any different? Does it take longer to react?
Finally take a flashlight and put it underneath your lava lamp and see
what happens.
This activity is brought to you by the Science
and Math Education in Action program at BGSU.
www.bgsu.edu/action
