Homemade Bubbles
vs
Store Bought Bubbles
Introduction
o What has already been tested was some different ways to make soap bubble
solutions, and how bubbles form.
o An article I read online was called “What's the Science Behind Bubbles?”, “Blow the
Best Bubbles”, “Bubble-ology” they all had info on how to make a bubble, what a
bubble is, and good ingredients to add to bubble solutions. None of them compared
different ingredients to see which one was the best.
o What I was trying to develop in this project is a bubbe solution that can create
bubbles that last longer in the air than store bought bubbles.
o My purpose of the project is to experiment with bubbles and to see if I can outride a
time of store bought bubbles.
o My research question is, can homemade bubbles last longer before popping than
store bought bubbles?
o Finaly, my design goal is to research about bubbles more and produce 3 different
bubble solutions to test against store bought bubbles. I wanted to use 5 different
solutions in case 1 or 2 solutions do not work I would still have a valid experiment.
Question
Can my homemade bubble solution produce bubbles
that last longer than store bought bubbles?
Hypothesis
I predict that my homemade bubble solution will do
better than the store bubble solution because I am
mixing in different soaps and ingredients instead of
mixing chemicals.
o 5 bowls all the same size
o One bubble wand
Materials o Dish soap
o Store bought bubbles
o Water
o Glycerin
o Milk
o MSG
o Corn syrup
o Stopwatch
o Pencil and paper to write down result
o Measuring spoons
o Measuring cup
Methods
o First, I got out 5 bowls that were all the same size to put out next
to my store bought bubbles.
o Next, I put 1 cup of water into each bowl
o Then I added 2 Tablespoons of Dawn dish soap. All the bowls
are the same up to now.
o In order to make the solutions different I now added 1
Tablespoon of my test ingredient to 4 out of the 5 bowls. The last
bowl is the control bowl that only had the Dawn dish soap.
o I picked out a bubble wand that had only one circle to be used
as another control for each bowl.
o Next, I opened the timer app on my dad’s phone in order to
time how long the bubbles lasted.
o In order to make sure the timer was started at the exact time the
bubble was blown and the same person blew the bubble I
needed the help of another person to start the timer.
Methods Continued
o To blow the bubbles I first rinsed my wand to make sure it was clean.
o Then I dipped the wand into the solution I was testing.
o As soon as the bubble was blown the timer was started. The person blowing the bubble
caught the bubble on the wand and lowered the wand catching hand to the counter in
order to prevent the wand from getting wiggled.
o The timer was stopped as soon as the bubble popped.
o Each solution was tested 4 times in this manner with washing the wand in between each
dip. Each bubble was attempted to be blown the same size.
o Once all of the solutions were tested the person blowing the bubbles switched with the
timer and the experiments were repeated. This was done to try to eliminate the variable of
the bubble blower.
o I made a graph to collect my data with each mixture getting 8 trials. This includes the
control homemade bubble solution and the store bought so that there were 6 mixtures total
tested. The high and the low times were thrown out with the remaining 6 averaged.
Results: measured in seconds
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Dishsoap only Glycerin M.S.G. Corn syrup Milk Store bought
Series 1 Series 2 Series 3 Series 4 Series 5 Series 6 Series 7 Series 8 Average
Discussion
o The result times for my bubble solutions proved my hypothesis that
homemade bubbles can override the time of storebought ones.
o The solution that lasted the longest was the glycerin. Glycerin absorbs water
molecules which helps to make the bubble more stable and prevent it from
popping.
o Store bought bubbles came in fifth out of sixth place meaning all of my
homemade solutions lasted longer than the storebought except for the
control group.
o Other research stated that its most likely homemade bubble solutions don’t
last longer that store bought ones. The expected result was that my
homemade solution would last longer than the store-bought solution.
o I did my best to control the size of the bubble, and to prevent it from
wiggling. The data varied between repeated trials for the time each bubble
lasted. This is why I averaged the times for the bubbles.
Conclusion
o I conclude that homemade bubbles can be better than store-
bought bubbles. They last longer before popping.
o There are a lot of homemade bubble solutions out there. The
research on bubbles is that they have 3 layers, one of which is water.
Therefore, a bubble solution made with an ingredient that slows
down evaporation or with an ingredient that can absorb water
produces bubbles that last the longest. In my experiments this
ingredient was glycerin.
o This important to research because, it can help us better understand
how bubbles are made, form, and help create longer lasting
bubbles.
References
o [Link]
ideas/Chem_p025/chemistry/blowing-the-best-bubbles
o [Link]
than-a-year-setting-a-new-record
o [Link]
than-a-year-setting-a-new-record
o [Link]
bubbles/