The Amazing Cube Bubble Experiment!
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October 07, 2024 / DIY / STEM Activities / Engaging Engineering Building / Ages 5 - 16 / Cube Bubble
Have you ever seen a square bubble? Can you create a square bubble with your own hands? Through this magical STEM experiment, explore the concepts of surface tension and geometric constraints.
- Age: 5-16
- Time: Less than 30 minutes
- Mess Level: Messy
Materials Needed:
- Pipe cleaners (12)
- Straws (13)
- Container (any water-holding container you can find at home, preferably large)
- Concentrated washing-up liquid
- Stirring stick
Step-by-Step Instructions:
- Insert the prepared pipe cleaners into the straws. You'll need to make 12 of these straw-pipe cleaner combinations.
- Use the exposed pipe cleaner ends to connect two straws together.
- A person's hands carefully attach a short length of red pipe cleaner to one end of a black-polka-dotted paper straw.
- Two hands hold up a cube framework constructed from black-polka-dotted straws joined at the corners with small pieces of red pipe cleaner.
- A hand dips a wooden stick into a cube-shaped container of pale green, bubbly liquid against a white background.
- Slowly remove the cube from the water, ensuring that a bubble film has formed on all six faces of the cube. Gently shake it to form a small square bubble in the middle of the cube. Insert a straw into the small bubble and blow gently; you'll see the bubble gradually expand.
The Science Behind It:
A cube-shaped frame made from black-polka-dotted straws, secured with red pipe cleaners, contains a clear soap bubble, with a straw extending from one corner.
When a bubble forms inside a cube-shaped mould, it's constrained by the mould's shape. The bubble adapts to the corners and edges of the mould, forming a cube-like shape. Once it loses the constraint of the frame, the bubble will either burst or return to a spherical shape.
Think about it: besides cube bubbles, what other shapes of bubbles can you create?
