Gabriel and I finished our lava lamp. It turned out pretty well. I enjoyed the project a lot because it was very fun to experiment everything and learn how to make a lava lamp out of simple items. We used benzyl alcohol and coconut oil and mixed at a very high temperature. That is what we used to create our lava. Then we got a royal blue Sharpie marker and squeezed the ink out of it, in order to color our lava. We had a lot of difficulties during this project also, because we had to get stuff approved, we had to get a lot of supplies and we had to test a lot of stuff in order to make things perfect, and safe.
Looking Back:
Our lava lamp turned out very good. It worked very well and it seemed like it was a real lava lamp that we could've bought from the store. I really loved how it turned out because it was what I wanted the lava lamp to look like from the beginning of the project.
Looking Beyond:
After we completed the project, I had a lot of questions. I wondered if the coconut oil was more reliable then the actual lava made in original lava lamps. I noticed that the coconut oil warms up faster and it moves around a lot better then a store bought lava lamp, so I wasn't sure if the coconut oil was more reliable than the other lava that is used in a real lava lamp. I researched the science behind a lava lamp and I found this: the densities of the liquids are much closer together than vegetable oil and water. The denser liquid sinks to the bottom, but the lava lamp light heats it up until it expands and becomes less dense, causing it to rise upward. That is why the lava floats up and down in the bottle of the lava lamp.
Looking Inward:
We got the results that we expected. I think one of the major things that contributed to getting the results, was our teacher. He provided us with all the tools that we needed to build this, and he helped us out a lot and gave us tips and ideas to construct our lava lamp. I think our project would've turned out a lot different if we didn't ask our teacher a lot of questions.
Looking Outward:
I worked with Gabe. I think we did very well together because we are good friends, and we get our work done. We both contributed a lot to the project, but Gabe got most of the supplies, I helped construct the lava lamp and I brought in the Grey Goose bottle. I really like working with Gabe because he is very creative and we get a long.
Looking Forward:
I really enjoyed this project. If I could do this again, I would make a whole bunch of lava lamps and try to even start a business. I would try to use different bottles, and different colors. We got the whole method on how to make the inside and the base, and now we just need to experiment on different bottles. We can even work on improving our base so there is no safety concerns, if the base gets too hot.
Looking Back:
Our lava lamp turned out very good. It worked very well and it seemed like it was a real lava lamp that we could've bought from the store. I really loved how it turned out because it was what I wanted the lava lamp to look like from the beginning of the project.
Looking Beyond:
After we completed the project, I had a lot of questions. I wondered if the coconut oil was more reliable then the actual lava made in original lava lamps. I noticed that the coconut oil warms up faster and it moves around a lot better then a store bought lava lamp, so I wasn't sure if the coconut oil was more reliable than the other lava that is used in a real lava lamp. I researched the science behind a lava lamp and I found this: the densities of the liquids are much closer together than vegetable oil and water. The denser liquid sinks to the bottom, but the lava lamp light heats it up until it expands and becomes less dense, causing it to rise upward. That is why the lava floats up and down in the bottle of the lava lamp.
Looking Inward:
We got the results that we expected. I think one of the major things that contributed to getting the results, was our teacher. He provided us with all the tools that we needed to build this, and he helped us out a lot and gave us tips and ideas to construct our lava lamp. I think our project would've turned out a lot different if we didn't ask our teacher a lot of questions.
Looking Outward:
I worked with Gabe. I think we did very well together because we are good friends, and we get our work done. We both contributed a lot to the project, but Gabe got most of the supplies, I helped construct the lava lamp and I brought in the Grey Goose bottle. I really like working with Gabe because he is very creative and we get a long.
Looking Forward:
I really enjoyed this project. If I could do this again, I would make a whole bunch of lava lamps and try to even start a business. I would try to use different bottles, and different colors. We got the whole method on how to make the inside and the base, and now we just need to experiment on different bottles. We can even work on improving our base so there is no safety concerns, if the base gets too hot.