Demonstrations

Soap Film - Minimal Surfaces

Code Number :	2A15.20
Disclaimer:	Reprinted by permission of Dick Berg, University of Maryland, for use on this website. The demonstrations contained and referenced herein are listed for the purposes of cataloging and describing physics demonstrations which should be conducted only under the direction of a trained instructional support professional or physicist. These demonstrations are not presented for the purpose of being conducted by persons unconnected to this Facility and/or persons not consulting with or being supervised by the recognized instructional support professional or physicist and his/her staff. The University is responsible only for those demonstrations carried out using its own equipment using established safety and scheduling policies, and bears no responsibility for those choosing to use this source material for their own purposes. All demonstrations described and contained herein are public domain, and can also be found in reference materials in libraries, bookstores, and electronic sources. Further information regarding legal liability in use of demonstrations and labs will be found on the web site Injuries in School/College Laboratories in USA. The University of Iowa Disclaimers: University of Iowa Disclaimer All Rights Reserved..
Condition :	Excellent
Principle :	Surface Tension & Minimum Energy
Area of Study :	Heat & Fluids
Equipment :	Soap bubble solution, soap bubble frame shapes.
Procedure :	Dip the frames into the soap bubble solution and draw out slowly. The minimum energy figures should be produced automatically when drawn from the soap bubble solution. Several of these figures will have multiple minimum energy configurations. Blowing soap bubbles in a confined container such as a Petri dish will give bubbles with straight edges. Mostly the bubbles will be 5 and 6 sided bubbles.

References

Gordon R. Gore, "Playing with Bubbles", TPT, Vol. 36 # 8, Nov. 1998, p. 502.

Cyril Isenberg, "Problem Solving with Soap Films", TPT, Vol. 15, # 1, Jan. 1977, p. 9.

David W. Weiser, "A Blind Physicist", TPT, Vol. 15, # 3, Mar. 1977, p. 132.

Ernest K. Chapin, "The Strange World of Surface Film", TPT, Vol. 4, # 6, Sept. 1966, p. 271.

Fred Fischer, "Four-Bubble Clusters and Menelaus' Theorem", AJP, Vol. 70, # 10, Oct. 2002, p. 986.

F. L. Roman, J. Faro, S. Velasco, "A Simple Experiment For Measuring The Surface Tension Of Soap Solution", AJP, Vol. 69, # 8, p. 920, Aug. 2001.

Yves Pomeau and Emmanuel Villermaux, "Two Hundred Years of Capillarity Research", Physics Today, March 2006, p. 39.

Sydney Ross, "Cohesion of Bubbles in Foam", AJP, Vol. 46, (5), May 1978, p. 513.

F- 360: "Soap Films on Wire Frames," DICK and RAE Demo Notebook.

"Soap Bubbles," The Exploratorium Science Snackbook, p. 88.1 - 88.2.

Mail Questions and Comments to: Dale Stille