Bubbles! Quick Lab

Introduction

Purpose
To test the hypothesis that bubble making can be affected by adding sugar or salt to a bubble blowing mixture.
Hypothesis
The sugar mixture will improve the bubbles in that they will be bigger and more resistant.  The salt mixture will make the bubbles small and weak.  Together they will make them strong and small.

Materials

• 4 plastic drinking cups
• liquid dish detergent
• measuring cups and spoons
• water
• sugar
• salt
• straw

Procedure

1. Label four drinking cups 1, 2, 3, and 4.  Measure and add one teaspoon of liquid dish detergent to each cup.  Use the measuring cup to add two thirds of a cup of water to each drinking cup.  Then swirl the cup to form a clear mixture.
2. Add a half teaspoon of table sugar to cup 2 and 4 and a half teaspoon of table salt to cup 3 and 4.  Swirl each cup for one minute.
3. Dip the drinking straw into cup 1, remove it, and blow gently into the straw to make the largest bubble you can.  Practice making bubbles until you feel you have reasonable control over your bubble production.
4. Repeat Step 3 with the mixtures in cups 2, 3, and 4.

Data/Discussion

The bubbles from the control cup were weak and didn't stay blown for a long amount of time.  The bubbles from the sugar mixture were larger and stronger and stayed blown for longer.  The bubbles from the salt mixture were small, but stayed blown like the sugar mixture.  The combined mixture made bubbles that were weak.

Conclusion

The more substance in the mixture, it adds to the bubbles' ability to stay blown.  If you add too much it makes it worse.