In its most common usage, a bubble is a globule of one substance in another, usually a gas within a liquid. For example, the bubbles you see in boiling water or in carbonated drinks are air or gas trapped in liquid form. These bubbles form when gas is trapped and then rises to the surface due to buoyancy.
The beautiful rainbow colors you see in bubbles are caused by light reflecting off the thin film of water. It acts like a tiny prism, separating white light into its component colors.
While water is a key ingredient, plain water wouldn't make good bubbles. Soap weakens the surface tension of water, allowing it to stretch and form a bubble.
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| Soap Bubble By Brocken Inaglory. Wikipedia |
Bubbles actually don't fly, they float! The air inside and the thin film are very lightweight, and they ride on currents of denser air molecules. Colder air makes bubbles last longer because warm air from your breath is lighter and makes them rise faster.
Bubbles aren't just for the surface! Marine life like dolphins and whales use bubbles for communication and even hunting, trapping sound waves and prey.
A bubble made of all the water on Earth would have a volume of 332,500,000 cubic miles and be about 860 miles in diameter.
Soap bubbles blown into air below 5 degrees Fahrenheit will freeze when they touch a surface.
The bubbles on the surface of a bubble bath thermally insulate the water, keeping the bath warm for a longer period of time.
If you put some methane into soapy water and make bubbles with it, you can light the bubbles on fire.
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