Schlieren photography has an almost magical feeling to it because it enables us to see the invisible – like shock waves and the tiny currents of heat that rise from Keep reading
Tag: soap bubbles
The Challenges of Blowing Bubbles
Although every child has experience blowing soap bubbles with a wand, only in recent years have scientists dedicated study to this problem. It turns out to be a remarkably complex Keep reading
2D Turbulence
Turbulence, the chaotic regime of fluid dynamics, is a complicated beast. It’s hard to analyze or predict, but we do understand some general ideas about it, like the fact that Keep reading
Bubble Art
Everyone loves soap bubbles, and bubble artist Melody Yang reveals how to make some pretty awesome ones in this video for Wired. The surface tension of bubbles makes them naturally Keep reading
Soapy Rainbows
The swirling psychedelic colors of a soap bubble come from the interference of light rays bouncing off the inner and outer surfaces of the film. As a result, the colors Keep reading
Liquid Sculptures
With patience and timing, one can create remarkable sculptures with fluids. To capture this shot, Moussi Ouissem used two droplets, perfectly timed. The first fell through the soap bubble (which Keep reading
Self-Healing Bubbles
Soap films have the remarkable property of self-healing. A water drop, like the one shown above, can pass through a bubble (repeatedly!) without popping it. This happens thanks to surfactants Keep reading
Supporting Bubbles
Surface tension holds small droplets in a partial sphere known as a spherical cap. But when droplets become larger, they flatten out into puddles due to the influence of gravity. Keep reading
Freezing Bubbles
Soap bubbles are wonderfully ephemeral, their surfaces constantly in motion as air currents, surface tension variations, and temperature differences make them dance. In this video, though, photographer Paweł Załuska focuses Keep reading
Soap Bubbles Up Close
Watching soap bubbles up close is endlessly fascinating. The iridescent colors reflect the soap film’s thickness, or, in the case of black spots, its lack thereof. The dancing of the Keep reading