How to Make a Bubble in Another Bubble?

The bubble exerts such fascination on kids that kids cannot resist the temptation to play it. Our Bubble inside Bubble activity will keep your kids excited for a while. In this experiment, you blow a new bubble in a bubble.

Age: 3+        Time: <20min

 Safety 

1. Be careful not to splash the bubble solution into your eyes.

2. Not drink the bubble solution.

3. Adult supervision.

 Materials List 

• Washing soap
• Water
• Glycerin (optional)
• Drinking straw

 Instruction 

Step 1/4 – Add 600ml water, 100ml washing soap, and a teaspoon of glycerin into a container. Mix them up and then, you have the bubble solution.

Step 2/4 – Fully wet the tabletop with the bubble solution.

Step 3/4 – dip one end on the drinking straw into the bubble solution and blow the bubble on the tabletop from the other end of the drinking straw. Then, you have a bubble on the tabletop.

Step 4/4 – pierce the drinking straw through the bubble and you will find that the bubble won’t break. Then you blow another bubble inside the previous bubble. See how many layers you can blow?

 Troubleshooting 

Why my bubbles are easy to break? 

—Make sure you are completely wet the tabletop and the tabletop is smooth. The adding of glycerin will prevent the bubble from breaking. 

 Question to Ask 

Why the adding glycerin can prevent the bubble from breaking?

 Scientific Description 

Washing soap reduces the surface tension of the water and slows evaporation of the water molecules so bubbles can last longer. When the bubble stays wet it is less likely to break. That is why we wet the tabletop. When the bubble touches the dirt or oil, it will immediately pop. That is why when we touch the bubble, the bubble will break. Our hands are rich in oil and dirt. When you pierce a drinking straw through the bubble, it does not break for the wet drinking straw does no harm to the bubble. When you blow the inner bubble, the volume of the air in the outer bubble is unchanged and compressed by the growing inner bubble so you can see when you blow the inner bubble, the outer bubble is also growing too.

 Extensions 

How many bubble layers can you make?