A soap bubble mainly bursts due to surface tension that maintains its shape. When the bubble is disturbed by external factors such as heat, wind, or sharp objects, this surface tension breaks, causing the bubble to burst.
A soap bubble is formed from a thin liquid layer — primarily made up of water and soap — sandwiched between two ultrathin layers of surfactant molecules. These soap molecules have a head that loves water (hydrophilic) and a tail that prefers to avoid water (hydrophobic), allowing them to easily create a stable and thin film on the surface of the water. Inside the bubble, there is air or any other gas captured at the moment of blowing. The structure of this membrane is extremely fragile, and its thickness is only a few micrometers, which explains the stunning iridescent colors characteristic of the reflection and interference of light. The slower this liquid membrane empties, the thinner it becomes, and the more vulnerable it is to bursting.
A bubble exists due to a delicate balance between its surface tension, which seeks to minimize its surface area, and the internal air pressure, slightly higher than that of the surrounding air. As soon as a weak point appears in the thin film of soapy water, this balance is disrupted. This is the rupture: the soap-water film opens instantly, releasing the trapped air and causing the typical bursting we all know. The speed of this tear is extremely fast, hence the very sudden and spectacular effect of the explosion.
Humidity significantly affects the lifespan of a bubble: the more humid the air, the less the bubble loses water through evaporation. As a result, it dries out more slowly and bursts less easily. The same goes for when it’s cold, as water evaporates more slowly, which helps the bubble survive longer. However, as soon as it starts to get warm or there's wind, be careful, the bubble dries out rapidly, its film weakens, and bam, it bursts quickly. Even polluted air can be a problem: small particles and dust stick to the film, disturb its surface, and contribute to breaking the tension, causing your lovely bubble to burst prematurely.
On a very small scale, it is molecules that decide whether a bubble holds or not. A bubble is made of water mixed with soap: soap molecules, or surfactants, position themselves at the surface of the water, forming a sort of flexible protective layer. But sometimes, due to internal movements or tiny disturbances, this layer has small microscopic defects. These imperfections quickly develop into fragile areas, leading to an extreme local thinning of the film. As soon as an area becomes too thin, it cracks: this is the immediate bursting of the bubble. These microscopic phenomena directly determine the lifetime of soap bubbles.
The astonishing colors of a soap bubble come from the phenomenon of light interference on the thin layer of soap and water that forms its wall.
High humidity can extend the lifespan of soap bubbles, as it slows down the evaporation of the water that makes them up, giving them greater stability.
The largest soap bubble ever recorded had a volume equivalent to nearly 96 cubic meters (3,399 cubic feet), which is about the size of a small room!
A soap bubble can have a thickness of less than a thousandth of a millimeter before bursting. That's much thinner than a human hair!
Yes, adding soap increases the stability of the water film by reducing surface tension. As a result, the bubbles formed can last longer before bursting. Adding certain substances, such as glycerin, can further extend their stability.
The contact with a surface immediately disrupts the delicate structure of the bubble's aqueous film. The surface tension is then significantly altered, and sudden variations lead to the rapid rupture of the bubble.
A soap bubble is made up of a thin film of water surrounded by two fine layers of soap molecules. The soap molecules orient their hydrophobic tails outward and their hydrophilic heads toward the water in the middle, thus stabilizing this very thin film.
Yes, bubbles could theoretically form in space, but their behavior would be very different compared to that on Earth. In the absence of gravity, bubbles might be more spherical and last longer, as they would not be affected by destabilizing effects such as gravity and air currents.
Bubbles naturally take on a spherical shape because this form allows them to minimize their surface area while enclosing a given volume of air. This is due to surface tension, which causes the soap film to adopt the shape that requires the least amount of energy.
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