Describe the properties on how DIY Lava works and compare it with the properties of actual lava.
Answers
Explanation:
wanted to find something, an easy explanation for what happens inside," Jánosi explained. "So I started to check the web and the professional literature, and that was a real surprise. There was practically no useful information, nothing about the physics."
Jánosi knew the basics, of course; a lava lamp operates on the principle of convection. The chamber is filled with water (sometimes mixed with additives) and a wax-like substance. Initially, the wax is denser than the water, and settles at the bottom of the lamp. A light bulb heats up the wax until it's less dense than the surrounding liquid. It then rises to the top, cools, and falls back to the bottom.
But Jánosi considered this to be a vague, hand-waving explanation at best. He wanted to know the details. He also had a scientific motivation; Jánosi works in the von Karman Laboratory of Environmental Flow in Hungary, which uses small-scale experiments to study the behavior of fluids in the atmosphere, oceans, and deep inside the Earth. Teachers and even scientists often compare the lava lamp's undulations to the slow convection in the Earth's mantle, and Jánosi wondered if it was truly a good analogy.