Lava lamp what is in it

The lamps are still produced today by the original company, Mathmos. The lamps work using a bulb in the base of the lamp underneath the bottle which heats the contents until the wax becomes molten. It then slowly rises to the top of the lamp, where it cools slightly, and sinks back to the bottom. This process is repeated, creating the unique shapes in the water.

I think that Ruth Bonser of Mathmos is being somewhat misleading in saying that her "company secret" is "fundamentally. The floating globules in my daughter's lamp are obviously wax and look to have properties very much like normal paraffin or candle wax, rather than dense waxes, such as sealing wax. Paraffin wax has a relative density of about 0. The lava-lamp wax sinks on cooling, so the surrounding liquid must have a density a little less than 0.

Ordinary alcohol ethanol has a density of about 0. The solid wax would then sink. On warming, the wax density falls substantially more so than the ethanol so it would then float. When lit, the dyes in the solution glow with a fluorescent luminosity. Most common fluorescent dyes are substantially quenched in pure aqueous solution, but exhibit fluorescence in ethanolic solution.

Roger Moore, Newport Pagnell, Bucks. Does Dr Moore's welcome solution of the lava-lamp problem raise a question of safety? Ada McVean B. The Science of Basil 11 Sep How do you know? Washing your hair? In Vancouver soap will work, but in Montreal it has to be shampoo. What is Safety Glass? Watch some wild GoPro footage from the inside of a lava lamp here. Have you got a Big Question you'd like us to answer? If so, let us know by emailing us at bigquestions mentalfloss.

BY Ellen Gutoskey. This site can help you in that search. Now you apply heat to the bottom of the mixture. In a liquid motion lamp, the heat usually comes from a light bulb. The heavier liquid absorbs the heat, and as it heats up, it expands. As it expands it becomes less dense.

Because the liquids have very similar densities, the formerly heavier liquid is suddenly lighter than the other liquid, so it rises. As it rises, it cools, making it denser and therefore heavier, so it sinks. This all happens in slow motion because heat absorption and dissipation are fairly slow processes, and the density changes we are discussing here are very slight.

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