Freezing Bubbles in Minnesota
January 26th, 2009 Posted in Just for Fun, Science | Tags: bubbles, cold, freezing, mazie, video, winterAfter vaporizing water a week or so back I thought I should try another cold weather science experiment. This time? Freezing bubbles. It was only -7 this morning when I tried it, so not as cold as it could be. But the bubbles still froze.
It’s hard to see from the video, but when my dog Mazie bites the bubble, you can hear a distinctive crunch. Frozen bubbles.
Freezing Bubbles from kevinhendricks on Vimeo.
For best results, blow bubbles upwards so they have more time to freeze. The frozen bubbles are like thin gossamer cellophane and are very fragile, usually shattering on impact, so it’s hard to get a good picture. Plus, floating bubbles aren’t exactly easy to photograph in the first place. Also, the colder, the better. I imagine doing this at night would have been better, both for pictures and faster freezing bubbles.
For really amazing frozen bubble pictures, check out this set of photos (via boing boing).
And yes, Mazie enjoys eating bubbles.
2 Responses to “Freezing Bubbles in Minnesota”
By Eric Everman on Jan 26, 2009
Hmm, Rachael and I are skeptical. Couldn’t the crunch sound be one of the dogs stepping in the snow? I’m sorry, but we are withholding frozen bubble points until we receive more conclusive proof. Try again without the dogs.
By Kevin D. Hendricks on Jan 26, 2009
Wow, you guys are tough. I can assure you, the sound was Mazie crunching the bubble. There are little frozen fragments of bubble on my patio–would that be convincing enough for you?