Would you like to know what makes the best bubbles?
Make a base mixture of water mixed with washing up liquid. If you don’t already have one, you can make a bubble wand using a pipe cleaner. Experiment with blowing bubbles, and then try adding sugar, baking powder, corn syrup or glycerin to your mixture, one at a time. Test how each ingredient changes the surface tension and affects the bubbles.
Have you ever wondered why bubbles form in soapy water but not in ordinary water? The answer is surface tension. The surface tension of water is too strong for bubbles to last – the water molecules pull each other together and the bubbles quickly burst. When water is mixed with soap, the surface tension becomes weaker and the liquid can be ‘stretched’ more, allowing bubbles to form.