You remember blowing bubbles as a kid, right?
Bubbles are fun, you blow them and it’s expected to pop very quickly, which makes sense as they’re very fragile.
Photo via Science News
However, recently a team of physicists has now made a bubble that lasts for a whopping 465 days. That’s more than a year!
According to Science News, instead of soap and water, the bubbles are made with water, microparticles of plastic and a clear, viscous liquid called glycerol.
In a normal soap bubble, gravity pulls liquid to the bottom of the bubble, leaving a thin film on the top that can easily rupture.
Evaporation of the liquid film also saps bubbles’ stamina. But in the “everlasting” bubble, plastic particles cling to the water, maintaining the film’s thickness while glycerol absorbs moisture from the air, countering evaporation.
“When we discovered that the bubble didn’t rupture after days, we were really astonished,” says Physicist Michael Baudoin of Université de Lille in France. So he and his colleagues waited to see how long the bubbles would last. And waited, and waited…
One bubble persisted for 465 days before it burst, making it the longest-lived bubble ever created!
Photo via Ars Technica
The bubble turned slightly green before rupturing, a potential hint at what caused it to pop. They suspect microbes probably took up residence which weakens the bubble’s structure.
This is pretty cool! We wonder if it could go on longer…
By: Aishah Akashah Ahadiat
