Bubbles
Bubbles appear in many different places. Bubbles are a thin membrane, usually almost spherical, which divides a three dimensional space into inner and outer segments. The membrane can be made of many different materials ranging from gum to soap. They can be produced in liquid, gas or (rarely) solids. They can be fun, they can provide us scientific clues on the properties of matter and they can be beautiful.
Many of us experience our first bubbles with a small ring-on-a-stick device made of plastic which is dipped into a bottle of soapy water. We then blow into the ring and a soapy semi sphere forms on the opposite side, gradually breaking loose from the ring and giving way to a free floating sphere. Depending on wind conditions, the bubble can float, fall or pop. Looking closely at the bubble, you can see the colors of the rainbow reflected in the clear sphere as the light is broken into its components by the angles created in the bubble. Now toy manufacturers have made bubble making guns which spew a continuous stream of bubbles using up both soap and batteries! Great for adults as well as children. A memorable bubble machine was that used by television personality Lawrence Welk. He had a bubble machine to create a playful atmosphere for his show and he made a big deal of the phrase, “Turn on the bubble machine”.
Children also have a fascination with bubble gum. It is fun to watch someone chewing their first bubble gum after seeing someone else blow a bubble and then try to emulate the same. It takes quite a bit of technique to soften the gum, form the membrane evenly, stick the tongue into it to the correct depth and then blow a stream of air into the pocket to create a bubble. Then refining that technique to form a very large bubble requires not only more gum, but persistence and practice.
My sister has a device designed to form extremely large bubbles using a wand with a cloth ribbon loop and a bucket of water mixed with soap and glycerin in just the right proportions. Just as with bubble gum, this device takes quite a bit of practice to get the bubbles to form without popping first. But when the technique is mastered, making huge bubbles in a park is sure to draw a crowd. I took this up to a camp on Austin Creek in Cazadero one volunteer work day. The college students who came along were quite fascinated with this big bubble making device and spent quite a bit of time mastering the procedure. They were able to obtain tube shaped bubbles several feet long. Then, when the bubbles broke free from the wand, they became rounded, though not often spherical. The biggest ones were nearly a couple of feet in diameter.
When learning to swim, teachers often have their students blow bubbles under the surface to become accustomed to the idea of having the face in the water. Here, of course, the medium into which the bubbles form is water rather than air. Since air is lighter than water, these bubbles move upwards toward the surface. So these bubbles are in constant motion. They are hard to see unless you have a face mask, goggles or an underwater camera. At the surface they pop instantly.
Bubbles form at the ocean edge where seawater meets the sand. Wave action causes the air to mix with the water. These bubbles are under constant motion, churning until they reach the surface, only to be drawn under by the next wave. Sometimes the mix of water and salt and seaweed is just right and they stay on the surface for a bit, looking somewhat like meringue.
When I was a boy of about ten or eleven, Boy Scout Troop 5 in Berkeley took a field trip to the Lawrence Berkeley Lab where scientists were making a bubble chamber designed to measure the behavior of high energy particles. We got a chance to look inside this special tank and learn how they were planning to fill it with liquid hydrogen warmed almost to the point of boiling, negative 252 degrees Celsius. As they beamed a particle into this super cooled liquid they simultaneously used a piston to increase the volume in the chamber. That allowed the hydrogen to “boil”, forming bubbles which were photographed to see how the particle behaved. This was the high science for which the Nobel prize was awarded to Donald A. Glaser in 1960.
Using my definition of bubble, a balloon could be considered a bubble. However, the balloon has a defect because it requires an entry point for the interior gas or liquid which must be closed for the bubble to maintain its shape. Therefore it is not spherical and self-contained in the same way a soap bubble is. However, it has the advantage of being longer lasting than a soap bubble. It also has the advantage of being able to contain a different substance on the inside than is found on the outside. Tossing this object to a friend at increasing distances until it can not be caught intact provides lots of fun.
My wife and I have a hobby of collecting bear statuary. One day in a gift shop we saw a clear piece of glass where an artist had sculpted the interior of the glass in the form of a bear. We were told that the technique was to use a laser to create superheated bubbles in the solid. By designing the laser to point at just the right spots in sequence, it creates the appearance of a three dimensional figure embedded in the crystal. This added a unique piece to our collection.
Another case where bubbles appeared in solid form was when we visited volcanic Mt Lassen. Even large volcanic rocks were full of bubbles which made them quite light. As children, we enjoyed playing strong-man with these large rocks, lifting them high above our heads and pretending that they were as heavy as normal rocks.
Bubbles manufactured in sheets of plastic are used in packaging to protect fragile items. They are an efficient way to surround a delicate item with air pockets. After the job is done, we often enjoy popping the bubbles which makes a nice percussive sound. But that’s not so good when we discuss an economic bubble bursting.
Shakespeare used bubbles in his famous cauldron scene in Macbeth.
“Double, double, toil and trouble;
Fire, burn; and, cauldron, bubble”
Now I’ll try my hand at some intelligent nonsense on the subject of bubbles:
Flubble Bubble
I’ll make a bubble from flubble!
“Flubble,” you say, “what is that?”
I can’t tell you for sure,
It’s a thing of de jour,
But I found some one day on my hat.
--
Flubble’s flexible, stretchable, moldable,
It is goopy, soupy and droopy,
It’s quite bouncy, pullable, foldable,
But too much could make you quite loopy.
Flubble is made from sweet dreams,
Then you add in some water and mud,
Top it off with white paper in reams,
Add some muck that you scooped from a flood.
Good flubble needs tasty mint jelly,
Even better to add juice and fruit,
Throw in some lint from your button of belly,
For good measure stir in an old boot.
One expert in flubble adds wax,
Another adds silvery spoons,
My favorite has cotton and flax,
But that’s just for goblins and goons,
All ingredients are in to make flubble,
And the objects you mix to a cream,
Blow with a straw—there’s your bubble,
In your eye it reflects a nice gleam.
A flubble bubble flies in the sky,
Or droops to the earth in a plop,
It could stay afloat very high,
If helium was used at the top.
Flubble is made from dreams you see,
With magic properties galore,
It’s not what you’ll find in the sea or a tree,
Or even a hardware store.
May your Flubble Float Finely aloFt,
Dreaming the impossible!
©Frank Bliss 2008 All rights reserved
January, 2008
Bubbles appear in many different places. Bubbles are a thin membrane, usually almost spherical, which divides a three dimensional space into inner and outer segments. The membrane can be made of many different materials ranging from gum to soap. They can be produced in liquid, gas or (rarely) solids. They can be fun, they can provide us scientific clues on the properties of matter and they can be beautiful.
Many of us experience our first bubbles with a small ring-on-a-stick device made of plastic which is dipped into a bottle of soapy water. We then blow into the ring and a soapy semi sphere forms on the opposite side, gradually breaking loose from the ring and giving way to a free floating sphere. Depending on wind conditions, the bubble can float, fall or pop. Looking closely at the bubble, you can see the colors of the rainbow reflected in the clear sphere as the light is broken into its components by the angles created in the bubble. Now toy manufacturers have made bubble making guns which spew a continuous stream of bubbles using up both soap and batteries! Great for adults as well as children. A memorable bubble machine was that used by television personality Lawrence Welk. He had a bubble machine to create a playful atmosphere for his show and he made a big deal of the phrase, “Turn on the bubble machine”.
Children also have a fascination with bubble gum. It is fun to watch someone chewing their first bubble gum after seeing someone else blow a bubble and then try to emulate the same. It takes quite a bit of technique to soften the gum, form the membrane evenly, stick the tongue into it to the correct depth and then blow a stream of air into the pocket to create a bubble. Then refining that technique to form a very large bubble requires not only more gum, but persistence and practice.
My sister has a device designed to form extremely large bubbles using a wand with a cloth ribbon loop and a bucket of water mixed with soap and glycerin in just the right proportions. Just as with bubble gum, this device takes quite a bit of practice to get the bubbles to form without popping first. But when the technique is mastered, making huge bubbles in a park is sure to draw a crowd. I took this up to a camp on Austin Creek in Cazadero one volunteer work day. The college students who came along were quite fascinated with this big bubble making device and spent quite a bit of time mastering the procedure. They were able to obtain tube shaped bubbles several feet long. Then, when the bubbles broke free from the wand, they became rounded, though not often spherical. The biggest ones were nearly a couple of feet in diameter.
When learning to swim, teachers often have their students blow bubbles under the surface to become accustomed to the idea of having the face in the water. Here, of course, the medium into which the bubbles form is water rather than air. Since air is lighter than water, these bubbles move upwards toward the surface. So these bubbles are in constant motion. They are hard to see unless you have a face mask, goggles or an underwater camera. At the surface they pop instantly.
Bubbles form at the ocean edge where seawater meets the sand. Wave action causes the air to mix with the water. These bubbles are under constant motion, churning until they reach the surface, only to be drawn under by the next wave. Sometimes the mix of water and salt and seaweed is just right and they stay on the surface for a bit, looking somewhat like meringue.
When I was a boy of about ten or eleven, Boy Scout Troop 5 in Berkeley took a field trip to the Lawrence Berkeley Lab where scientists were making a bubble chamber designed to measure the behavior of high energy particles. We got a chance to look inside this special tank and learn how they were planning to fill it with liquid hydrogen warmed almost to the point of boiling, negative 252 degrees Celsius. As they beamed a particle into this super cooled liquid they simultaneously used a piston to increase the volume in the chamber. That allowed the hydrogen to “boil”, forming bubbles which were photographed to see how the particle behaved. This was the high science for which the Nobel prize was awarded to Donald A. Glaser in 1960.
Using my definition of bubble, a balloon could be considered a bubble. However, the balloon has a defect because it requires an entry point for the interior gas or liquid which must be closed for the bubble to maintain its shape. Therefore it is not spherical and self-contained in the same way a soap bubble is. However, it has the advantage of being longer lasting than a soap bubble. It also has the advantage of being able to contain a different substance on the inside than is found on the outside. Tossing this object to a friend at increasing distances until it can not be caught intact provides lots of fun.
My wife and I have a hobby of collecting bear statuary. One day in a gift shop we saw a clear piece of glass where an artist had sculpted the interior of the glass in the form of a bear. We were told that the technique was to use a laser to create superheated bubbles in the solid. By designing the laser to point at just the right spots in sequence, it creates the appearance of a three dimensional figure embedded in the crystal. This added a unique piece to our collection.
Another case where bubbles appeared in solid form was when we visited volcanic Mt Lassen. Even large volcanic rocks were full of bubbles which made them quite light. As children, we enjoyed playing strong-man with these large rocks, lifting them high above our heads and pretending that they were as heavy as normal rocks.
Bubbles manufactured in sheets of plastic are used in packaging to protect fragile items. They are an efficient way to surround a delicate item with air pockets. After the job is done, we often enjoy popping the bubbles which makes a nice percussive sound. But that’s not so good when we discuss an economic bubble bursting.
Shakespeare used bubbles in his famous cauldron scene in Macbeth.
“Double, double, toil and trouble;
Fire, burn; and, cauldron, bubble”
Now I’ll try my hand at some intelligent nonsense on the subject of bubbles:
Flubble Bubble
I’ll make a bubble from flubble!
“Flubble,” you say, “what is that?”
I can’t tell you for sure,
It’s a thing of de jour,
But I found some one day on my hat.
--
Flubble’s flexible, stretchable, moldable,
It is goopy, soupy and droopy,
It’s quite bouncy, pullable, foldable,
But too much could make you quite loopy.
Flubble is made from sweet dreams,
Then you add in some water and mud,
Top it off with white paper in reams,
Add some muck that you scooped from a flood.
Good flubble needs tasty mint jelly,
Even better to add juice and fruit,
Throw in some lint from your button of belly,
For good measure stir in an old boot.
One expert in flubble adds wax,
Another adds silvery spoons,
My favorite has cotton and flax,
But that’s just for goblins and goons,
All ingredients are in to make flubble,
And the objects you mix to a cream,
Blow with a straw—there’s your bubble,
In your eye it reflects a nice gleam.
A flubble bubble flies in the sky,
Or droops to the earth in a plop,
It could stay afloat very high,
If helium was used at the top.
Flubble is made from dreams you see,
With magic properties galore,
It’s not what you’ll find in the sea or a tree,
Or even a hardware store.
May your Flubble Float Finely aloFt,
Dreaming the impossible!
©Frank Bliss 2008 All rights reserved
January, 2008
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