The Science of Bubbles

Friday, November 21st, 2008
It is Science Week in Galway. Actually, in Galway it is a Science Fortnight, starting last week and finishing with a very exciting Science Exhibition in Salthill in Galway on Sunday. In our school all the teachers and pupils walked to Galway Education Centre to see a fantastic Bubble Show. Three of our Junior Infant classes also got to go to a show given by the Armagh Planetarium.
Steve was our bubble man. He blew lots of bubbles, small ones and then big ones. He showed us the 7 colours that can be seen in bubbles - red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet (the colours of the spectrum, same as the colours in the rainbow). Steve showed us how to guess when a bubble will burst - it will turn from colourful to blue, then to gold, white, and will finally burst.
Next we got to move bubbles with our hands and by blowing them. That was great fun. Steve showed us that bubbles are always spheres, regardless of whether they are blown through a circular wand, a square wand or through your hand. We saw bubbles really clearly when Steve blew smoke into the bubbles. He even showed us how to bounce bubbles, put our hands through them, how to blow a bubble inside another bubble, and how to make a string of bubbles all joined together. We can make really good bubble mixture using wash up liquid, water and glycerine. We are looking forward to having lots of fun ourselves with our bubbles.