This fun science experiment illustrates convection currents with high definition footage and a clear, succinct explanation. It's the perfect introduction to your science lessons or science fair project on ocean currents, climate, water density, plate tectonics or even the workings of a lava lamp! You've probably heard that heat rises. This simple phenomenon creates never ending movements in our atmosphere, ocean and in the molten rock of the the earth's mantle. In this video you'll watch hot water rise and see that, as it does so, it draws more water in behind it. Once it gets to the surface, it moves to the sides and begins to cool. Cool water SINKS and this sets up circular movements of water that you'll see here in real time and sped up so you can really comprehend the science topic! What's more, you'll see it from above in time-lapse photography and you'll see ice-melt sinking. This video is as hypnotic as a lava lamp! To try this at home you'll need: 1) a clear plastic container with about a gallon of room temperature water (or about 75-80% full) 2) some blue and red food coloring (or whatever colors you like) 3) a pipette (like these: amzn.to/1o0pWLz) or eye dropper 4) three of the same mugs Step 1: Step 1: Find a nice place to work that won't be harmed by a little water. A kitchen is probably the best place at home. Step 2: On a table place the container on top of two of the mugs. Space them apart so that they support the container of water steadily but make sure your third cup of water can slide easily between them. It might help to put the two "support mugs" on coasters so they're just a bit higher than the mug that will slide in the middle. Step 3: Fill your container with room temperature water. Leave a couple inches so that you don't spill water now or at the end of the experiment--you don't want food-colored water all over the place! Step 4: Put about 20 drops of red food coloring into a test tube or the smallest cup you can find. Draw it up using the pipette. Push out as much of the air from the tip as you can so the food coloring is right at the tip. Step 5: Carefully put the pipette straight down in the water and place the tip on the bottom in the middle. TRY NOT TO SQUEEZE THE BULB OF THE PIPETTE UNTIL THE TIP IS AT THE BOTTOM. A little will probably spill out but, if you're careful, you can make a little pool of food coloring on the bottom of the container and it will just stay there. Pretty cool, huh? Step 6: Do this two more times with the blue food coloring about two inches on either side of the red blob. Step 7: Heat some water to boiling or near-boiling and pour it into the mug. Kids, you should get a parent to help with this! Fill it up as full as you would a cup of coffee or tea. Step 8: Slide the mug under the red food coloring and wait about 20-30 seconds. Step 9: Say, "OOOOH!" "AAAAH!" as the water begins to rise. The drama may seem to end after about 5-10 minutes but, if you use the time lapse feature on a smart phone or tablet, you may be surprised that you can still see the water moving for quite awhile--until the water in the mug has really cooled off. It's a bit different every time so try it a few different ways and see how things change. THIS IS SCIENCE! You can probably think of some ways you can change this and I encourage you to do so. You might even be able to make a really awesome science fair project with your own variation on this demonstration. Have fun and science on, bros!

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