Kids and adults alike love this simple yet amazing trick with bubble soltuion and a straw. A great way to explore surface tension, geometry of bubbles and of course, have a little competition!
Materials
– Bubble solution (make your own with detergent) OR buy our Crazy Bubble Juice that is VERY elastic and long lasting.
– Straws
– Container and a flat surface
Remember
1. Detergents can be very slippery if spilt on floors. Wipe up immediately if spillage occurs.
2. If making your own with pip cleaners, be careful when using scissors (adult supervision needed).
3. Our kits (made by Zometool) have small balls and are NOT suitable for children under 3 years. If you have younger siblings, please make sure they are supervised and ALL parts are packed away after use.
Make the bubble solution and wet a desk. Use the straw and blow a bubble onto the table surface slowly.
Wet your straw so that 3/4 of the straw is wet. This will enable you to push it through the bubble film without it bursting the bubble.
Dip your straw into the bubble solution and try and blow a bubble inside the first bubble. Kepp repeating this to see how many you can make.
TIPS:
– If you blow to hard or there is wind, the bubbles inside the bigger bubbles will move towards the outer bubble and join.
– Blow slowly, otherwise it will pop.
– The desk needs to be wet, otherwise it will pop.
The main concept in this experiment is surface tension. We could also talk about light diffraction (making colours, interfference patterns etc which is extended on in our 5P teacher training).Â
Surface tension is a force resulting from water molecules being held together. Water molecules ling next to each other and are held to gether by a foce (called Hydrogen bonding). The collective force resulting from all the water molecules being hel together is called ‘surface tension’. Is it this forcve that holds the bubble together and stops it from ‘bursting’.
Bubbles burst when the bubble film gets very thin or gets pulled apart when a dry object touches the skin.Â
This experiment involves making many bubbles inside eachother. The size of the bubble made depends on:
– The flexibility of the bubble
– How quickly the water evaporates from the bubble film (making it thinner)
– If the expanding bubble edge touches a dry section of the desk (or your finger) causing it to break.
If you would like
– more details,
– pictures of the second half of the experiment
– information on how to investigate this further
– links to everyday examples
– management hints & teaching pointers (5P Teacher develpoment program)
 ….. then why not subscribe to one of the following
(1) Crazy science Club
(2) 5P Teacher Training course called ‘Looney Lab  Classroom Creations‘
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Or you can purchase the ‘Bright Sparkes Guide’ of this demonstration only ($2.50) which has:
- HD pictures of experiment steps
- Detailed explanation of science
- Mini-challenge section (another experiment)
- Making it a ‘Scientific Method’ experience
- Graphing opportunities
- REAL links and descriptions to everyday examples of concept.