Science Club - Lava Lamps

It's been a groovy week in Miss Khan's Key Stage 1 Science club as our young engineers get to grips with making some incredibly groovy lava lamps. 

Now I must admit, I had no idea how you could make lava lamps using just a heat source and some paraffin wax. Apparently at room temperature, the globs of paraffin wax are denser than the surrounding liquid. When the lamp is turned on, the light bulb generates heat. The bottom of the mixture gets hot and the wax begins to expand. As the wax expands, it becomes less dense, and it begins to float up. Consequently you get an incredibly amazing effect, don't take my word for it though, just look at the images below.

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