The lava lamp was invented in 1960 by Edward Craven-Walker. The glass filled container with blobs of colored wax is fun to watch move around forming different shapes. Your family can make your own lava lamp with these easy instructions.

Making a Lava Lamp

What you need
plastic bottle
water
baby or vegetable oil
food coloring

Steps
1. Mix up water and food coloring.
2. Fill the plastic bottle ¾ of the way with oil.
3. Take your water mixture and pour in to fill the rest of the bottle.
4. Close the lid tightly.
5. Turn the bottle on its side and watch the colors move through the oil in funny shapes and blobs.

How does this happen?
The water and oil do not mix because the water has more density than the oil. So the oil moves around in the water.

We would love to hear what you discovered from this experiment by leaving a comment.

Experiment credits kids-science-experiements.com