One of the Scienc Museum's most popular demonstration products. Inflatable base holds the bubble liquid around its perimeter, allowing people to stand inside while the bubble want is moved up and over their heads. Great to play and understand the physics behind bubbles and bubble making. Full instructions for use, including instructions on how to make great bubble solution.
What does it do? Mega Bubble lets you produce soap bubbles big enough to fit a person inside.
How does it work? The ring in the Mega Bubble kit is dipped into bubble solution and then lifted out quickly. The"skin" of the solution sticks to the ring as you lift it, creating a soapy tube connecting the ring tothe liquid below. The surface of a bubble is being stretched by the air inside, so it is trying tosqueeze the air into the smallest shape possible - a sphere. You'll never get corners on a singlebubble. If you move it fast enough air pressure will detach the film from the ring and the tension inthe surface of the film will make it close around on itself, trapping some air inside to make aspherical bubble.
Did you know? Most liquids have "surface tension" at their top layer, which causes that layer to behave like astretchy skin. In the case of water the surface tension is too strong to support a thin film - smallamounts of water are snapped back into individual droplets too quickly. Adding soap weakens thesurface tension just enough to let a stable film develop, which is the first step to making bubbles.
Try it Out Look at the surface of the bubbles you make. Can you see any colours? Light is reflected off boththe inner and outer layers of the soap film. The film's thickness is similar to the wavelength oflight, so if white light is shone on the film, some colours are cancelled out by interference. Light ismade up of waves, and white light is a mixture of many waves of different colours that we perceiveas white when they are combined. If, for example, the thickness of the film is the same as half thewavelength of blue light, blue light reflected from the front and back of the soap film will beprecisely cancel out and you will see yellow. The skin of a bubble thins as gravity pulls down on it,and as it dries out, which you can see as moving colour patterns on the surface.
