Lava lamp snowfall

DIY lava lamp snow globe!

Safe­ty pre­cau­tions

Per­form this ex­per­i­ment only un­der adult su­per­vi­sion.

Reagents and equip­ment

  • white gouache;
  • baby oil;
  • bak­ing soda;
  • cit­ric acid;
  • glass;
  • wa­ter;
  • spoon.

Step-by-step in­struc­tions

Mix some white gouache with wa­ter in a glass. Pour the so­lu­tion into a big­ger glass and pour baby oil gen­tly down the wall of the glass. Add bak­ing soda and cit­ric acid — this re­leas­es a storm of white bub­bles!

Process de­scrip­tion

The cit­ric acid re­acts with the bak­ing soda, re­leas­ing bub­bles of car­bon diox­ide. They rise through the oil lay­er and pull the tint­ed wa­ter along with them. It looks like a snow­storm has be­gun in the glass! You can find many more in­ter­est­ing ex­per­i­ments in the MEL Chem­istry sub­scrip­tion!

Try it