Bouncing Bubbles Experiment!
There’s something magical about bubbles and there are so many greatscience experiments involving them! This one’s my personal favourite asthe feeling of bouncing bubbles will always bring a smile to your face
What do you need?
-
Two waterbottles
-
Scissors
-
Tape
-
Washing up liquid
-
A bowl
-
​Woollen scarf, hat, or gloves
Step 1
First let’s build our bubbles blower! Take your scissors and cut your two bottles in half and then make a slit down the side of each(as shown)
Step 2
These vertical slits you just cut in will mean you can slot the two halves together to make your bubbles blower! Wrap a bit of tape round so it doesn’t fall apart!
Step 3
Next up is making your bubble mixture. There are several million different bubble recipes outt here but we’ll just keep things simple! Use a ‘good’ brand of washing up liquid. I find Fairy works best (they didn’t pay me to say that!). What ever brand you go for always use the ‘unscented’ or ‘original’ version. Mix around one part washing up liquid to three parts water and really mix it together well. I find letting my bubble mixture ‘stand’ overnight helps too but it’ll still work just fine if you can’t wait to get started.
Step 4
Blow some bubbles! Put your bubble blower into your bubble liquid and giveblowing a couple of bubbles a try!
Step 5
It’s time to make our bubbles bounce! Blow a bubble and flick it into the air. Have your woollen scarf on your hand ready and catch it! Look at the bubble bounce! If you’ve got more friends than me (hopefully!) go grab one of them, get something woollen each and play catch with bubbles - it’s awesome!
What's going on?
Well, first let’s think about what a bubble is?A bubble is really just air wrapped up in a thin film of soap! Why do they pop? They are always going to pop eventually but oil and dirt are the most common causes of bubble death! Using woollen gloves or a scarf avoids both of these so should keep your bubbles ‘alive’ as long as possible!
Warning!
This experiment is addictive – if you bounce your egg too hard you’ll need to start over with a new one!
Oh, and don’t eat your egg! It’s a pickled science experiment now!
Looking for yet more fun?
Continue the investigation like a real scientist...
-
What other materials could you try? Tinfoil, cotton socks, your t-shirt, your jumper-get creative and get experimenting!