Bubbles are soap and water, filled with air. They are created because of surface tension, which tends to minimize surface area, which means bubbles are usually round. In this project, I make square bubbles.
We apologize. The video that accompanied this project accidentally got deleted. We will fix this as soon as possible.
All you need is:
12 straws
6 pipe cleaners
A large container
Lots of bubble solution. It can be either store bought or homemade.
Procedure:
1: Cut 6 pipe cleaners in half. Now you have 12 half pipe-cleaners.
2: Cut 12 straws so you have straight pieces about 3 and ½ inches long. Don’t use the bendy parts of the straws.
3: Take 3 pipe cleaners and twist the ends together. Bend them apart at 90 degree angles to make a shape like one corner of a cube. Repeat until all your pipe cleaners are used. You should have 4 pyramid shapes.
4: Slide the 12 straw pieces over all the pipe cleaners and then connect all your corner shapes together to create a cube shape. This is the cube your will use to force your bubble into a square shape.
1: Put your bubble solution into a deep container or bowl.
2: Dip your cube into the solution so all sides have bubble film.
3: Shake the cube gently until all the films connect in the middle.
4: Take a whole straw, wet it in your bubble solution, gently put the wet end into the middle of the cube and blow a bubble into the center. If you blow in the right spot, You should see a square bubble form at the center of your bubble cube.
These bubbles appear square instead of round because when you dip the square frame into the bubble solution, the solution sticks to the straws and creates flat bubble film between the straws. When you create a bubble in the center, the normally circular bubble is pulled by the outer films towards the cube, making the interior bubble cubical instead of round.
The study of surface tension in bubbles and how they form and pop can help us with ongoing benefits in space travel. In the vacuum of space, there is nothing to slow down the production of bubbles, so in space when liquids experience sudden pressure drops, a process called 'cavitation' can occur where bubbles form in the hydraulic systems of machines.