Lava Lamp Lab Report

My knowledge of heat transfer in a lava lamp before instruction was that waves of electricity was sent through the power cord and heated the lamp. This would then heat the wax in the lamp causing it to bounce around the lamp. I did not know the amount of wax a lava lamp contained, but after seeing a lamp that has not been plugged I was quite surprised. I had believed there had only been a couple of tablespoons within the lamp, but that is because a lot of the wax sits at the bottom. Also, I did not know lava lamps contained wax I believed it was a gummy substance that was not very dense, which allowed it to more around easily. After discussing the heat transfer of a lava lamp with my group we came to the conclusion that the wax in the lamp

Having a name like lava lamp could get people to believe that the lamp contains a substance that is similar to lava. Especially younger children might believe that it contains actual lava. Another misconception would be the liquid inside the lamp just floats around randomly without reason. I once believed that because I didn’t have anyone to explain to me how heat transfer in lava lamps worked. As I grew up I understood lava couldn’t actually be in a lamp or water. However, I was never curious enough to explore how they worked on my own because I was sure it was a simple

Lava lamps contain the three methods of heat transfer and they are conduction, convection, and radiation. Conduction takes place when heat moves around and meets with matter causing molecules to move around and come in contact with more molecules. With the lava lamp, conduction is present when the coil in the lamp heats up sending heat throughout the lamp as well as heating up the wax. The next method is convection, which is when air or water heats up due to gravity pulling it down and the weight on top pushing it downward. Because gravity is pulling the water or air down the water becomes denser. In the lava lamp, we have the heat on the bottom, which causes the molecules to move around, the molecules become heated which leads to them becoming less dense. The wax then begins to rise and reaches wax that is the same density as its own and pushes it downward to fill the empty space it created. As the molecules move around the lamp heat transfers with the movement. The last method of heat transfer in a lava lamp is radiation and that is energy that comes from a source and transfers through objects or air like sunshine. With the lava lamp, I learned that radiation comes from the top of the lamp transferring heat