A soap bubble of initial radius is blown at the end of a capillary tube of length and cross sectional radius . It is then left so that the size of the air bubble gradually reduces and the new radius is . If the surface tension of the soap bubble is and the coefficient of viscosity of air is , then the time taken by the bubble to reduce to radius can be represented as
where all quantities are in SI units and is a positive integer. Viscosity of air and surface tension of soap solution is independent of temperature.
Evaluate the value of .
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The pressure inside the bubble is at time t when the radius of the bubble is reduced to r will be P b u b b l e = P 0 + r 4 T . Now, through the capillary of length l, the air is flowing and we can use Poiseuillie's equation for it. That is, Q = − d t d V = 8 η l π Δ p a 4 V = 3 4 π r 3 Δ p = r 4 T Putting these values in the equation, − 4 π r 2 d t d r = 8 η r l 4 π T a 4 − ∫ r 1 r 2 r 3 d r = 8 η l T a 4 ∫ 0 t d t t = T a 4 2 η l ( r 1 4 − r 2 4 ) = T a 4 x 6 η l ( r 1 4 − r 2 4 ) x = 3