Soap bubbles

Two bubbles made of soap solution are attached to the ends of a straw with an obstruction at the middle of the straw (so no air can flow from one bubble to the other). The radius of one of the bubbles is twice the other. At the instant the obstruction is removed, what will happen to the sizes of the bubbles?

Image credit: Quinn Dombrowski
The radius of the smaller bubble will decrease while the radius of larger bubble will increase. The size of both bubbles will increase. There will not be any change in the sizes. The radius of the smaller bubble will increase while the radius of larger bubble will decrease.

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3 solutions

Anurag Jha
Jan 23, 2014

This is how I solved it - Excess pressure ( Pressure inside - Pressure outside the bubble) = 4 S R \frac{4S}{R} , S is surface tension, R is the radius

Let The radius of the smaller bubble be R, Then excess pressure P1 in the bubble = 4 S R \frac{4S}{R}

The radius of the larger bubble is 2R, Then P2 = 4 S 2 R \frac{4S}{2R} = 2 S R \frac{2S}{R}

Since Surface tensions S are equal P1 > P2.

After the obstruction is removed, the fluid ( here air ) will flow from region of high pressure to low pressure, so the air moves from the smaller bubble to the larger bubble.

Hence the size of the smaller bubble decreases, the size of the larger bubble increases

cool solution, thanks a lot

amgalan amgaa - 7 years, 4 months ago

what a beauty!

Mayank Holmes - 7 years ago

Yeah I did the same

Parth Lohomi - 6 years, 10 months ago
Maharnab Mitra
Jan 24, 2014

Excess pressure inside a soap bubble is 4 T R \frac{4T}{R} where T T is the surface tension and R R is the radius of the soap bubble. So, excess pressure is inversely proportional to R R \implies The smaller bubble has greater pressure than the larger bubble.

As pressure is transferred from higher one to the lower one, it will be transferred from the smaller bubble to the larger bubble.

Thus, smaller bubble gets smaller and the larger one gets larger. As the smaller bubble gets smaller, pressure inside it increases and it is obvious that its rate of getting smaller increases as the process goes on.

If pressure in smaller bubble getting reduced, then its radius must increase?

Prakhar Gupta - 7 years, 4 months ago

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Read it carefully:

" smaller bubble gets smaller and the larger one gets larger".

I only talked about the size. The pressure inside the smaller bubble increases gradually.

Maharnab Mitra - 7 years, 4 months ago

Yes. Think about it this way, there are fewer compressive forces acting on the bubble when there is less pressure. Thus, the bubble will be more free and will expand, increasing its radius.

Ahaan Rungta - 7 years, 4 months ago

I solve this in this way.

Arghyanil Dey - 7 years, 1 month ago

try it practically

Did you really do it that way ???

Santanu Banerjee - 7 years, 3 months ago

WOAH !!!!.....seriously????

Tanya Gupta - 7 years, 3 months ago

You must jocking!!!!!!!!

Arghyanil Dey - 7 years, 1 month ago

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