Super Bubbles
Have I mentioned lately how much I like bubbles? And also how much kids like bubbles? I didn’t think so. It turns out that it is relatively easy to make a super strong bubble solution, by using Dawn dish soap and warm-ish water and adding either sugar, glycerol, or lubricant to the bubble solution. All of these additives work by forming hydrogen bonds with the water, that reduces the surface tension and makes the bubbles less fragile. Once they are less fragile, what can you do with them? Well, blow a super large bubble that covers a Styrofoam plate, for example, and then try to blow another bubble inside of that one. What happens then (spoiler alert)? That interior bubble will migrate fairly quickly to the outside of the bubble surface and merge with the larger bubble, because the merging reduces the overall surface tension of the system.
What else can we do with super strong bubbles? Use pipe cleaners (with or without straws) to create all kinds of shapes and then blow bubbles with the shapes and create bubble shaped concoctions that way.
If you put on a standard winter glove (which you probably should be wearing anyway these days), you will be able to catch the strong bubbles on the glove. You can’t usually catch them on your hands because the oils on your hands disrupt the water surface, but the winter gloves don’t have such problems and are able to catch the bubbles without trouble.
For more information about such super strong bubbles, check out the links below:
