How Lava Lamps Work - podcast episode cover

How Lava Lamps Work

Dec 13, 20132 min
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Episode description

Liquid motion lamps -- or lava lamps -- use heat to create slight differences in the density of two liquids. Learn more about lava lamps and density in this Brainstuff podcast.

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Transcript

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From a single computer to tens of thousands of computers and servers. Mosey by e MC protects data and files with the most trusted cloud backup service for business. Visit Mosey dot com to learn more. That's m o z Y dot com. Mosey It's always there. Welcome to brain Stuff from how Stuff Works dot com Where smart Happens, Hi Marshall Brain. Liquid motion lamps, which most people know is lava lamps, have been around for decades, but have you ever wondered how they work. It's actually the same

kind of thing that powers a hot air balloon. The theory behind liquid motion lamps goes something like this. Inside the lamp, you have two liquids, and these two liquids are first of all, very close in density and second insoluble in one another. Oil and water are insoluble in one another, but oil and water have very different densities. A volume of water weighs a lot more than the

same volume of oil. They won't work in a lava lamp, so you search to find two liquids that are very close in density and are insoluble like oil and water. Now you apply heat to the bottom of the mixture in a liquid motion lamp. That heat usually comes from a lightbulb. 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 heavier liquid is suddenly lighter than the other liquid, so

it rises. As it rises, it cools down, and that makes it denser and therefore heavier, So now it starts to sink. This all happens in slow motion because heat absorption is a fairly slow process, and the density changes we're talking about here are very slight. That slowness is what makes a lava lamp so cool. Do you have any ideas or suggestions for this podcast? If so, please send me an email at podcast at how stuff works dot com. For more on this and thousands of other topics,

go to how stuff works dot com. Protect your organization's critical files with Mosey by E m C, the most trusted name in cloud backup. Don't leave the security of your business critical files to anyone but Mosey by E m C. Visit Mosey dot com or ask your I T provider from Mosey cloud Backup. That's m o z y dot com,

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