Lava Lights

[Rakdos]

What makes up the lava in lava lights?

[Phi for All]

How to make your own lava lamp.

[Lance]

Ooh, I'm going to try making the 'poor mans' lava lamp today. Fun stuff.

 

Shouldnt this be in general science?

[Lance]

I had an idea that it would be cool to make a lava lamp with black lava that happens to be ferrofluid (because I have so much of it around I might as well get rid of some of its), ferrofluid is mineral oil based. So I pour some 90% isopropyl in a flask and put some ferrofluid in it. To my surprise what ever sorcery was keeping the iron suspended in the oil was reversed and I was left with extremely thin iron fillings and no oil. Weird.

 

Anybody have any idea what caused this?

 

It’s still pretty entertaining though. You can shake the flask up and it all turns solid black. Then you put a magnet near it and the iron collects near it and the alcohol turns clear.

 

Now that I think about it this really has nothing to do with lava lamps. Whops.

I'll do some more experimenting and see if I can make a working ferrofluid lamp. How cool would it be to have a lamp that responds to magnetic fields? I’m not sure what the point is though.

[ed84c]

what is ferro fluid? Some sort of iron based fluid?

 

If you have so much lying around, as you do :S, why not give me some?

[Lance]

if you have so much lying around, as you do :S, why not give me some?

 

I would be happy to send anybody a small amount as long as you pay for shipping. PM me if you’re still interested. It would be easy to do it with paypal.

 

It’s a ferro-magnetic fluid, so it responds to magnetic fields. If you put some in a Petri dish and put a strong magnet under it the suspended magnetite will align it self showing visible spikes. Very interesting stuff.

[RICHARDBATTY]

A lot of the ones around now use wax.

[RICHARDBATTY]

I would be happy to send anybody a small amount as long as you pay for shipping. PM me if you’re still interested. It would be easy to do it with paypal.

 

It’s a ferro-magnetic fluid' date=' so it responds to magnetic fields. If you put some in a Petri dish and put a strong magnet under it the suspended magnetite will align it self showing visible spikes. Very interesting stuff.[/quote'] That stuff sounds cool. You could make a fun display in an enclosed flat tray with a moving magnet under it. If it will hold a dye it would peak and the colour would change as the amount of liquid the light traveled through changed. I love this sort of stuff its great to watch. What colour is the liquid where did you get it or how can you make it please.? Does it have special properties or can you just grind iron and mix it with oil.

[Lance]

That stuff sounds cool. You could make a fun display in an enclosed flat tray with a moving magnet under it. If it will hold a dye it would peak and the colour would change as the amount of liquid the light traveled through changed. I love this sort of stuff its great to watch. What colour is the liquid where did you get it or how can you make it please.?

 

http://ferrotec.com/ sells it.

 

Its black and it coats EVERYTHING which is a real disappointment. Enclosed display cases don’t work because it coats everything. Being black also means you cant die it. (wow that doesn’t sound too good, maybe I should rephrase that)

 

I don’t think many people have successfully made it at home. You can make crapy homemade versions but they won’t spike and it’s not really a true suspension. People have taken the powder off of VHS takes and added to mineral oil but it doesn’t do much.

[Phi for All]

Hey Lance, could you make a ferro-lamp with an electromagnet at the top that would pull the filings when turned on and drop them when turned off? Then you could rig up a timer to have it go on and off at intervals so it moved like a lava lamp does (not the same movement of course, but movement makes it interactive and fun to watch).

 

You may have discovered a new use for all the ferro-fluid you've got laying around (besides ferro-frenching, of course).

[Lance]

Hey Lance' date=' could you make a ferro-lamp with an electromagnet at the top that would pull the filings when turned on and drop them when turned off? Then you could rig up a timer to have it go on and off at intervals so it moved like a lava lamp does (not the same movement of course, but movement makes it interactive and fun to watch).

 

You may have discovered a new use for all the ferro-fluid you've got laying around (besides ferro-frenching, of course). [/quote']

 

 

Interesting idea. Ill add that to my list of experiments. Maybe there’s a money-making idea somewhere in this thread.

 

Not that I need any other use for ferro-fluid; ferro-frenching never gets old.

[RICHARDBATTY]

http://ferrotec.com/ sells it.

 

Its black and it coats EVERYTHING which is a real disappointment. Enclosed display cases don’t work because it coats everything. Being black also means you cant die it. (wow that doesn’t sound too good' date=' maybe I should rephrase that)

 

I don’t think many people have successfully made it at home. You can make crapy homemade versions but they won’t spike and it’s not really a true suspension. People have taken the powder off of VHS takes and added to mineral oil but it doesn’t do much.[/quote'] Thanks I had a look at their site it seems as though there are various viscousitys though and the surfectant would need to be added to home made stuff to prevent it coagulating. The vhs tapes probably didn't have the right size or composition of particles. I might just have to experiment with this. I know you say its black and the stuff on the site was but thats how they made it. You may be able to play with it still if its made to your own spec.