I know...I know...I said that nearly all bubbles are spherical.  Nearly all of them are but not this one.  In this experiment we’ll be making a square bubble!

What do I need?

• Washing up liquid and water
• Bucket or large container
• 8 pipe cleaners
• 12 Straws
• Scissors

STEP1 – First thing is to make our square bubble maker.  Take a pipe cleaner and bend and twist it round to make a ‘corner shape’ as shown.

WARNING: Make sure that you don’t make your square bubble maker too big, make sure it can fit in your bucket!

STEP2 – Get an adult to help out chopping all of your straws in half.

STEP3 – Slide your ‘half straws’ over your pipe cleaner ‘corner shape’ to make one corner of your cube.

STEP4 – Repeat this process to build out your straw cube framework.

STEP5 – Submerge your bubbler-maker into your bubble mixture. Lift it out and give it a little shake and you should see a wondrous site, a square bubble!

What’s going on?

Doesn’t look like it’s possible, does it? Looks sort of mystical and out of this world but it’s actually all to do with pressure.

A bubble film forms between each of the sides of the cube framework. This means that you can have a square bubble in the centre where the pressure is close enough to equal to make it work.

More Fun Please!

• Try not to play with your bubble for too long!?
• Would other shapes be possible? Could you make a triangle bubble?
• Try using a straw to blow a ‘normal’ bubble inside the square bubble, why does that work?