It’s been cold here lately. Here’s a temperature graph for the last 24 hours:
Last winter I saw a photo somewhere on the web of a partially frozen soap bubble. This made me wonder how cold it has to be for soap bubbles to freeze in mid-air, so I bought a bottle of Super Miracle Bubbles at the grocery store. Immediately after that the weather warmed up and I didn’t get a chance to try the experiment.
This morning it was -3F (that’s -19C for those of you in countries with contemporary measurement systems) which seemed cold enough to be worth venturing out for the sake of scientific inquiry. This temperature seems to be right around the threshold: soap bubbles will freeze in mid-air, but they need some height to do it. It’s pretty remarkable when it works. The bubble will partly freeze and then break, leaving a portion of the sphere floating in the air like a tiny, iridescent, partially constructed Death Star. (Okay, that’s a strange simile, but isn’t that shot of the new Death Star in The Empire Strikes Back about the most memorable image of a partial sphere that you can think of?) Some of the pieces stayed intact after falling to the landing in front of our door and blew around in the air stirred up by my feet when I retreated from the cold.
Okay, now I’ve GOT to try that! 😀
(Also: memorable image indeed!)
Okay, I guess I’ll have to give in and start watching the Star Wars movies.
You really only need to see the first one (i.e. the first one that was made, not the first one chronologically in the story). The image I referred to is in the second one but its significance would be diminished if you haven’t seen the first one.
um, wasn’t the unfinished second Death Star only seen in #3, Return of the Jedi…?
I could be wrong… 🙂
Oh, heck. You could be right. Now I’m not sure.