Étiquette : physics

freshphotons:

“Surface tension dictates the spherical cap shape of small sessile drops, whereas gravity flattens larger drops into millimeter-thick flat puddles. In contrast with drops, soap bubbles remain spherical at much larger sizes. However, we demonstrate experimentally and theoretically that meter-sized bubbles also flatten under their weight, and we compute their shapes. We find that mechanics does not impose a maximum height for large soap bubbles, but, in practice, the physicochemical properties of surfactants limit the access to this self-similar regime where the height grows as the radius to the power 2/3. An exact analogy shows that the shape of giant soap bubbles is nevertheless realized by large inflatable structures.” Via.

Tension surface