As a matter of fact getting the bubble wand back in the bucket is the hardest part of the whole process. Just the mechanics involved with raising the bubble wand over your head to cast a bubble, then closing it and bringing it back down into your bucket of bubble juice is hard. You'll thank yourself later.īigger = Harder: The bigger the bubble wand the harder it is to use. In the past we've experimented with bubble wands that were so ridiculously heavy that they were unusable even after one or two dips. Not only with the pole and wick materials you use, but also taking into consideration how much the wand weighs when the wick is fully saturated with bubble juice. Weight needs to be accounted for across the board. Especially if you are bubbling for hours. Even with an extremely light weight wand you will still be lifting it over your head over and over again. Weight: Weight is one of the most important considerations to make when designing a bubble wand. If the bubble wand is too big they may not be able to lift it high enough or even get the bubble wand's loop off the ground to cast a bubble. If the child is fairly short you will want to make a bubble wand that is scaled down for their size. The best example of this is a bubble wand for a young child. Intended User: Depending on the intended user of the bubble wand you will want to adjust the bubble wand size accordingly. We have found that there are a few factors to take into consideration when designing a tri-string bubble wand. Over the years we have experimented with many different materials. They are the very best for casting enormous outdoor soap bubbles. Even though the wands are actually only make with two strings. We use what are referred to as tri-string bubble wands.
Take a look at The Soap Bubble Wiki's page on wands for a broader understanding of what's out there. From the cheap bubble wands that come with off the shelf bubble juice, to extra large world record breaking sized bubble wands. For these reasons, large bubbles are much more fragile than small bubbles.There are many bubble wand designs out there. In addition, the larger bubbles have their own weight to support. This is because larger bubbles have a larger surface area, which means more places for external forces, such as air pressure and gravity, to have an effect. Adding glycerin to the soap solution does the trick by thickening the walls of soap.Īt a certain point, bubbles get too big to hold together. To make bigger and stronger bubbles, we need to prevent the water from evaporating. When the water evaporates, the bubble bursts.
Decreasing the strength of the attraction between water molecules lowers the surface tension of the bubble solution, allowing bubbles to form!Īlthough soap makes it possible to blow bubbles, it is still the surface tension of water that holds the bubble together. If you think again about magnets, when two are very close to each other, the pull between them is much stronger than when there is more space between them. It does this by creating space between the water molecules, which decreases the strength of their attraction to one another. Adding soap or detergent lowers the water's surface tension, allowing the surface to stretch and bubbles to form. The surface tension of water is so strong that it prevents us from blowing bubbles from just water. The body of the bubble was much larger, and therefore much more fragile. This is similar to what you experienced with the wand with longer twine. You can make a very long tunnel with a small diameter, but if you try to build a tunnel wide enough for an adult to walk through, it will have trouble supporting its weight. Imagine building a tunnel with LEGO® bricks. Larger bubbles have their own weight to support. It helps create stronger, bigger, and longer-lasting bubbles.Īt a certain point, however, bubbles get too big to hold together. The glycerin in the recipe thickens the walls of soap, and as such, makes it harder for water to evaporate. When the water between the soap layers evaporates, the bubble pops. The water layer is what holds the bubble together.
The bubble solution mixture that makes up a bubble's surface is composed of three very thin layers: soap, water, and another layer of soap. As the twine got longer (especially at nine feet), it may have been more difficult to form big bubbles.
You probably created some of the biggest bubbles possible, with just a string and some patience! You may have found that it was easier to create the long bubbles with the shorter twine. Pour leftover soap mixture down the drain.