Have you seen a volcano erupt? If you are keen on learning about natural phenomena, you have probably seen a video of a volcanic eruption. How about creating a volcano eruption at home? There will be fizz, bubbles and oozing lava, without any dangers of a real volcano. Making a volcano science project is for everyone who loves to learn while having fun.
What we need
Flour – 5 to 6 cups
Salt – 2 cups
Oil – 4 tablespoons
Water – 1 jar
Baking soda – 2 tablespoons
Dish-washing liquid – Few drops
Food color – Red or yellow
Vinegar – Half cup
Tempera colors
Cardboard piece or a flat pan
Plastic bottle with a small mouth – 1
Procedure
- Mix the flour, water, oil and salt to make dough of the required consistency. The dough should be smooth and firm, but not too watery.
- Place the bottle in the center of the cardboard piece.
- Mold the dough around the bottle in such a manner that the bottle is fixed in its place.
- Shape the dough to form a volcanic mountain with the bottle at the center. (Let the mountain be rugged so that it will look more real) Remember, the mouth of the bottle should not be covered with dough.
- Allow the mountain to dry overnight.
- When the mountain is completely dry, you can make it more appealing by applying a coat of paint.
- When the volcanic mountain is ready, we will proceed to make it erupt. For this, pour warm water into the bottle up to three-fourths of its capacity.
- Add a few drops of red and yellow food colors, and few drops of dish-washing liquid to the water.
- Add the baking soda to the mixture inside the bottle.
- Now comes the most exciting part. Pour vinegar slowly into the bottle and see the magic. You can see the lava-like bubbles rising up from the mountain. In a few minutes, it will be dripping all around your mountain. The lava is red and fizzy, just like a real volcano!
Explanation
What we saw in this making a volcano science project was the result of a chemical reaction between an acid and a base. Vinegar is an acid and baking soda is a base. It was the reaction between these two which gave us the bubbling volcano.
Baking soda is made up of sodium bicarbonate while vinegar contains acetic acid. The reaction between these two chemicals produces carbonic acid. As carbonic acid is highly unstable, it disintegrates into carbon dioxide and water. The formation of carbon dioxide results in the build-up of pressure inside the bottle. When this pressure increases, the water rises out of the bottle as bubbles. This produced the effect of lava for our volcano project. Dish-washing liquid helped to intensify the effect of bubbling.
Do this project at home and enjoy seeing your homemade volcano erupt. For more interesting science projects, go through our Projects section.
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