Physics models and real-world experiments help keep bubbles from popping:
Blowing soap bubbles, besides being a favorite pastime for children, also happens to be an art form and a subject of interest for physicists. Emmanuelle Rio, François Boulogne, Marina Pasquet, and Frédéric Restagno from the Laboratory of Solid State Physics at the University of Paris-Saclay have been studying bubbles for years, trying to understand the different processes at play in these innocuous-looking structures.
"Bubbles are important as they appear in many places, including washing products, cosmetics, building materials, and also in nature. For example, sea foam plays a role in terms of the exchanges between the atmosphere and the sea," Boulogne said.
Now, the team has described a key event in the life of bubbles: when they pop.
[...] Boulogne stated that although there is a link between temperature and aging of the bubbles, the impact of low temperatures on when the bubbles pop remains to be understood—and is likely to stay that way for a while. "So far, we have no model that can make this prediction. Understanding the stability of bubbles is a challenge that will take several decades," he said.
[...] Working with the French artist Pierre-Yves Fusier, who specializes in bubbles art, Rio and her colleagues developed the recipe, which consists of 40 milliliters of dishwashing liquid, 100 milliliters of glycerol, and 1 gram of long polymer such as the naturally occurring guar gum mixed in 1 liter of water. Using this recipe, Rio created 5 cm-diameter bubbles in her laboratory that lasted an hour.
While adding glycerol may make the bubbles more stable, Rio said the impact of other ingredients on the bubbles' stability is still an open question. "Glycerol is a hydroscopic molecule which can help condensate water. But we know the surfactant (dishwashing liquid) and the polymer also impact evaporation. The next step in our study, therefore, is to find out how our recipe impacts the evaporation," Rio said.
Journal Reference:
Pasquet, M., Wallon, L., Fusier, PY. et al. An optimized recipe for making giant bubbles. Eur. Phys. J. E 45, 101 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1140/epje/s10189-022-00255-6
(Score: 4, Funny) by Opportunist on Thursday January 19 2023, @04:29PM
Do the crypto bubble next.
(Score: 2) by TrentDavey on Thursday January 19 2023, @04:52PM
https://nighthawkinlight.wonderhowto.com/how-to/make-huge-soap-bubbles-0148536/ [wonderhowto.com]
If you don't use all of it for your bubbles you can use it ... in other ways.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by nostyle on Thursday January 19 2023, @06:46PM (1 child)
Way back in the '60s, my dad helped me mix up some exotic solution featuring glycerin that made nearly shelf-stable bubbles. I captured one, mounted it on a wire stand and protected it beneath an inverted (empty) mayonnaise jar to test the longevity. It lasted around 30 days.
Oh yeah, ...and foam rubber is a thing.
(Score: 2) by istartedi on Thursday January 19 2023, @07:15PM
Yeah, and if they're going to add anything other than soap to the bubble mix, they might as well just use Super-Elastic Bubble Plastic [youtube.com], which I fondly remember from the 1970s.
My older sister got a tube of it. I wasn't allowed to play with it, probably because I would have made too much of a mess. I fondly remember her blowing up a bubble, a psychedelic blob that bounced merrily down the street in the breeze until it met its fate in the storm drain along with bell bottoms and the newly created EPA.
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