Joey Green's Mad Scientist

Poor Man's Lava Lamp

What You Need

Bottle of club soda
Four or five raisins

What to Do
Open the bottle of club soda, drop in the raisins, and reseal the cap tightly on the bottle. (The effect will also work in a drinking glass filled with club soda.)

What Happens
The raisins sink to the bottom of the bottle, slowly rise to the surface, and sink back down again, repeatedly.

Why It Works
Carbon dioxide bubbles from the club soda accumulate in the wrinkles of the raisins, eventually lifting the raisins to the surface. There the bubbles escape, and the raisins sink to the bottom again to repeat the cycle. The effect lasts longer in a sealed bottle of club soda because less carbon dioxide is able to escape.

Bizarre Facts

Craven Walker, a native of Singapore, came up with the idea for the lava lamp while drinking in an English pub after World War II, and spent the next fifteen years developing it, just in time for the psychedelic sixties.
Over four hundred thousand lava lamps are made each year.
Firewalkers in Hawaii walk barefoot over hot lava.
The eruption of Laki volcano in 1783 in southeast Iceland created a lava flow some 43-1/2 miles long, the longest in recorded history.

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