A couple of days ago I read this web comic on the Internet. In the comic (for those of you who opted to not click the link), a kid blows a bubble in the freezing cold Saskatchewan winter, it freezes, falls to the ground and shatters.
I couldn’t stop thinking about it. I reasoned that freezing would not alter its mass or volume, so it shouldn’t fall to the ground and shatter. But if it were cold enough, it would have to freeze, right? Or maybe the warm air inside it (from the inflation process) would cause it to expand and burst?
Luckily, it was cold enough today to consider some experimentation (it was about 1 degree F outside). I found a two gallon jug of bubbles under the kitchen sink and hauled it out. I bet the kids didn’t even know those were there.
To avoid the hot lung-sourced air, I decided to try waving the wand first. I couldn’t make any bubbles that way. I don’t know if it was because of the cold or not. David wanted to give it a try, and he reasoned that if he inhaled a lot of cold air and blew it out before it warmed up too much, maybe that would work. And it kind of did. He blew several bubbles. Some floated across the yard and into the woods. I didn’t chase after them, but I never saw any fall out of the air and shatter. He got too cold and came back in. Then I went out and gave it a whirl.
On my first attempt, I dipped the wand in the solution, pulled it out, inhaled deeply, and then blew into an ice-coated bubble wand. I dipped it in again and gave it another go. I blew several bubbles, but the wind was blowing, and they all escaped.
Then the wind died. I blew several more. The first one I tried to catch with the wand popped immediately, but I kept trying. Then I caught one. I tried to set the wand down on top of the bubble jug, but as soon as I did, the bubble popped. I tried again, eventually catching another. I set it down, dashed in the house, and grabbed the camera.
Frozen Bubble
By the time I got back outside, the bubble had frozen. I touched it to see if it was like glass. Nothing seemed to happen. It didn’t pop. I touched it again. When I pulled back, I saw that my finger had melted a hole in the side of the bubble.
Holy frozen bubble, Batman!
If you look closely, you can see the hole.
That is, in every sense of the word, a very cool bubble.
January 23, 2013 at 6:23 pm
That frozen bubbble is beyond COOL! Thanks for sharing.
January 23, 2013 at 6:27 pm
Ha ha! I thought so too. It melted very quickly when I brought it back into the house. Well, most of it did. The part in contact with the wand lasted longer, and looked like the rim of a crater. It too melted in short order.
January 23, 2013 at 7:10 pm
That reminds me of the time that somebody told me that hot water took longer to come to a boil than cold water. I don’t remember what the final result was, but I stood here watching water boil all evening. Your expiriment is much more fun, and it’s catching on-I saw a guy do the same thing on the news tonight. He also froze a banana and used it to pound a nail into a piece of wood.
This morning the news people were all excited about a wet tee shirt that took 10 minutes to freeze solid. When I was a kid the clothes lines were full of them!
January 23, 2013 at 8:09 pm
I’ve wondered how people dried their clothes up here in the winter before the advent of clothes dryers. They just let them freeze? Then what, bang out the ice? Or did they hang them up indoors?
January 24, 2013 at 6:02 am
We always had to at least try to dry them outdoors, but they always ended up on coathangers, hanging all throughout the house. The tricky part was getting them indoors while frozen solid-you literally had to stack them. Then they had to thaw a bit to become pliable enough to get on a coathanger. It was really a lot of work, but I think the idea was to let most of the water drip off outside, rather than all over the floors.
January 23, 2013 at 9:05 pm
Believe it or not Jim, they will freeze dry.
January 23, 2013 at 9:30 pm
That’s pretty amazing, but I guess it shouldn’t come as a surprise.
January 23, 2013 at 10:43 pm
That was a pretty nice burst of experimenting! Kind of the northern equivalent to the Arizona frying an egg on the driveway.
I also remember the days when things were hung out on a clothesline to freeze-dry in the winter. As a kid that fascinated me!
January 23, 2013 at 10:47 pm
Thanks Terry. Maybe tomorrow morning I’ll toss a cup of boiling water into the air and watch it turn to snow. Zero degrees now and falling.
January 23, 2013 at 11:11 pm
I’d trade you temperatures tonight. Here it’s 29º and (very unexpectedly), raining.
January 23, 2013 at 11:16 pm
Sounds like a recipe for freezing rain.
January 24, 2013 at 2:11 am
That was interesting, if you get bored, try freezing another bubble, and then sticking a pin through it. If you get photos, it will amaze people.
January 24, 2013 at 3:48 am
I don’t know that the ice bubble would support a pin. They are very delicate. But I know how to find out!
January 24, 2013 at 2:39 am
[...] the most amazing thing, you guys have to check this out! Jomegat read the comic from a few days ago with the soap bubble turning to ice and shattering, and [...]
January 24, 2013 at 3:22 am
That’s really neat, way better than the comic! If you read today’s comic, you’ll see we tried to duplicate your experiment, but without as much success. Did get some neat photos, though!
January 24, 2013 at 3:47 am
Very cool. I think your results differed because your temperature was so much colder! 35 below! Now that’s cold!
January 24, 2013 at 9:59 am
Very cool timing for this blog.
I live in New Jersey and we are currently experiencing the coldest temperatures in 3 years.
It’s not a big deal but the news stations need something to talk about.
January 24, 2013 at 10:02 am
Yes, they do. I find it painful to watch news shows when there is no news, or even when there is breaking news, but little information. They continually spew what they do know over and over.
January 26, 2013 at 12:01 am
Literally very cool!!
January 27, 2013 at 6:31 pm
Thanks Susan. You probably won’t get the opportunity to freeze bubbles in Texas any time soon. I’m glad you could enjoy mine.
January 28, 2013 at 11:05 am
[...] My own brother lives in New Hampshire and recently tried to blow a frozen bubble. Here’s what happened: [...]