When I blow bubbles with my hands, or make big bubbles with hoops, little kids often ask, "How do you do that?!". The answer: "I don't! Nature (or physics?) does it; I just help".
OK: I prepare a really good soap bubble mixture. I create really good tools (hoops, loops and other things), or hold my hands skillfully, so the bubble juice can form a film and so there is enough liquid flowing to make a big/interesting bubble. But it is the wonders of chemistry (the dipole quality of water, ionic bonds in soaps, long-chain polymers adding elasticity to the bubble films) and physics (why soap films always try to create the smallest surface possible, why thin films create "rainbow" colors from interference patterns) that make our experience of bubbles possible. I am just waving my hands around; Nature is doing all the hard work.
I think we take all this for granted when we make small bubbles for kids. Bubbles just are what they are. But when the bubbles are different than we expected (made with hands; or formed into temporary corkscrew shapes; or made huge), we ask more probing questions. Why do bubble films .....? How can you make them do.....? How big can they.....? Why don't they.......?
I love these questions. They tell me that people are seeing something freshly (and that is a truly wonderful thing -- a thing full of wonder). The questions reveal our basic curiosity about how the world works. They reflect our hunger to understand the world around us. And they show our delight in the world as it is.
So, any questions?
OK: I prepare a really good soap bubble mixture. I create really good tools (hoops, loops and other things), or hold my hands skillfully, so the bubble juice can form a film and so there is enough liquid flowing to make a big/interesting bubble. But it is the wonders of chemistry (the dipole quality of water, ionic bonds in soaps, long-chain polymers adding elasticity to the bubble films) and physics (why soap films always try to create the smallest surface possible, why thin films create "rainbow" colors from interference patterns) that make our experience of bubbles possible. I am just waving my hands around; Nature is doing all the hard work.
I think we take all this for granted when we make small bubbles for kids. Bubbles just are what they are. But when the bubbles are different than we expected (made with hands; or formed into temporary corkscrew shapes; or made huge), we ask more probing questions. Why do bubble films .....? How can you make them do.....? How big can they.....? Why don't they.......?
I love these questions. They tell me that people are seeing something freshly (and that is a truly wonderful thing -- a thing full of wonder). The questions reveal our basic curiosity about how the world works. They reflect our hunger to understand the world around us. And they show our delight in the world as it is.
So, any questions?
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