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How to Build a Plasma Light

A plasma light is a lamp made of a glass tube with blobs of plasma floating around on the inside of the tube. These lamps were extremely popular in the 1970s and have been making their way back into popular culture. You and your children can build your own plasma light at home using household items. Creating one of these lamps is a great way to expand your child's creativity and to spend some quality time together at the same time.

Things You'll Need

Glass jar
Tap water
Dark red food coloring
Glitter
Vegetable oil
Flashlight

Instructions

- 1
  Take a tall, thin glass jar and fill the jar more than half full with water. You can use regular tap water from your kitchen or bathroom sink.
- 2
  Using the dropper, take some of the dark red food coloring and put seven drops of food coloring into the water. Open the bottle of glitter and add some glitter to the glass jar.
- 3
  Pour enough vegetable oil in the glass jar to finish filling the jar. Take a flashlight and put it directly behind the glass jar. Turn the flashlight on.
- 4
  Pour some salt into the jar. The salt makes drops of the vegetable oil fall down to the bottom of the jar. Continue watching the jar to see the same drops pop back up to the top of the jar as they form little blobs of plasma-like material.

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