subject: Interesting Tips On How To Build A Volcano [print this page] Building a volcano is a fast and simple technique to see the principles of a real volcano up close and personal without actually dealing with the deadly gases and molten lava a real volcano make. Therefore if you are interested in making a volcano or you are required to make one as a science project or something, here is all you need to know to make one using things available around your house.
Required Tools
Brushes
Required Materials
6 cups of flour
2 cups of salt
4 tablespoons of cooking oil
2 cups of tap water
Warm water
Baking soda
Red food coloring
Dishwasher detergent
Vinegar
Baking dish/plywood
Plastic soda bottle (2 liter or smaller)
Paint
Plastic decorations (trees, shrubs, rocks, etc)
Instructions
Start with the dough, which will become the mountain of the volcano. You can buy play dough or some other type of pre-made dough if you wish but as these instructions are for things you most likely have readily available at home. You can make your own dough using the flour, salt, cooking oil and tap water. Your dough must be smooth and firm so that it is easy to mold.
Lay the baking dish/plywood on a level surface to function as the base of your volcano (a baking dish might be best since it will enclose the lava when it overflows and lessen the amount of lava you need to clean up).
Put the soda bottle on the base you prefer and start molding the dough around it to make a mountain. If you do not have sufficient dough to pad the mountain and make it as large as you would like you can put cardboard, wads of newspaper or like things around the sides of the bottle to fill up some of the space.
Take the cover off the bottle if you have not already done so and carry the dough all the way up to the mouth of the bottle so that the bottle is totally unseen. You can make trenches in the side of the mountain for lava to flow down, or anything else you choose to make the mountain more realistic.
Allow the dough-mountain to dry totally and then use brushes to paint the mountain or spray it with spray paint. You can then set the plastic decorations around the mountain and on the sides to decorated it to your choosing, then it is time to move on to the eruption of the volcano.
Fill the bottle to about with the warm water and put in the red food coloring. Add about 6 drops of the dishwashing detergent to create the foam part of the volcano, 2 tablespoons of baking soda, and then throw about a cup of the vinegar into the bottle and stand back and witness the eruption happen!
You may use and reuse the volcano as many times as you wish, all you have to do is use a rag to wipe up the lava flow and it is ready to go again.
Tips and Warnings
Be careful not to drop dough inside the bottle as you construct the mountain since the dough may interfere with the concoction used to make the volcano erupt.
The water in the bottle does not have to be hot however, the warmer it is, the better the explosion will be.
If you desire orange-colored lava, put in a few drops of yellow food coloring besides the red coloring inside the bottle.
Add more than 2 tablespoons of baking soda if you wish for an even larger eruption but be prepared for the extra clean up!
Do not try to cover the bottle once you add the vinegar since pressure may grow inside the bottle and cause it explode.
