Make Some Ghost Bubbles!
If you want to make any day better, perhaps the easiest way is to add bubbles to it. We have seen lots of different kinds of bubbles: big bubbles, small bubbles, bubbles that don’t pop, even colored bubbles. But my personal favorite is Ghost Bubbles. They’re not that hard to make and they are great fun to explore…especially at Halloween:
YOU WILL NEED:
- A large plastic container with a wide mouth
- A rubber sink sprayer designed to attach to a faucet with the sprayer cut off/removed. (regular wide tubing, 1 cm or wider will work as well)
- Small bowl of bubble solution. CLICK HERE for a recipe.
- Warm Water
- Dry Ice – Available at some grocery stores and ice suppliers
- A glove made of fuzzy fibers.
CAUTION!: NEVER touch dry ice with your bare hands.
Always wear thick gloves and keep away from children.
NEVER place dry ice in a completely enclosed container.
WHAT TO DO:
- Carefully drill a hole towards the top of the container that is just wide enough to fit the tube.
- Fit the tube into the opening with the wide (faucet end) out as shown in the top picture and secure with tape if needed.
- Fill the container with warm water about 1/4 full.
- Drop several pieces of dry ice into the water and cap the container loosely. Dry ice mist should now be coming out of the tube.
- Dip the end of the tube into the bubble solution and make ghost bubbles! If the mist is coming out too fast, loosen the container cap to adjust the flow.
MORE GHOST BUBBLE FUN:
- Try holding Ghost Bubbles with a fuzzy glove such as a wool glove. With some practice, you can toss and bounce the bubble.
- Allow the bubbles to fall onto a fuzzy surface, such as a towel. Try rolling them around by lifting different ends of the towel. Fuzzy surfaces keep the bubble from easily popping because they spread out the amount of pressure on the surface of the bubble, and keep it from touching a surface that would absorb the moisture and dry out the bubble, causing it to pop.
GHOST BUBBLE INFO:
Every soap bubble is made of a film that has 3 layers: Soap, then Water, then Soap. Because of the way that soap molecules are arranged, and the way they attract and repel from each other and the water, the soap creates bonds that give the water additional strength, and allow them to last much longer. The dry ice mist is a combination of water vapor and carbon dioxide gas from the dry ice. Because carbon dioxide is heavier than air, dry ice mist will always flow downward.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE FUN HALLOWEEN EXPERIMENT IDEAS!
The Ultimate Bubble Solution
Bubbles may very well be the world’s first toy. From sea foam, to hand soap, to those bubbles you blow in your milk, it seems bubbles are part of our daily life. Soap bubbles way be the most fun off all bubbles and they are an inexpensive and limitless way to explore our bubbly world.
For years bubbleologists have perfected the solution for the longest-lasting and most durable bubbles. Perhaps the person who has studied the science of bubbles the most, is Keith Michael Johnson. And he recently shared his unlikely TOP-SECRET formula for the best bubble solution…
You will need:
- Water – many bubble enthusiasts are convinced that distilled water makes the best bubbles
- Liquid dish soap. Dawn dish soap has always been a favorite
- SurgiLube (available at medical supply stores) or K-Y Jelly (available at pharmacies)
- A clean plastic bottle to hold your bubble solution
What to do:
Simply pour all three ingredients into the bottle in the following ratio:
- 12 parts water
- 1 part dish soap
- 1/2 part SurgiLube
For example you would start with 12 ounces of water, add 1 ounce of liquid dish soap, and 1/2 ounce of SurgiLube. You can increase the amounts equally to make more.
- Shake the ingredients up well (don’t worry, the bubbles from shaking will go away)
- For best results, allow the bubble solution to sit overnight. Then you’re ready to go!
How do bubbles work?
Every soap bubble is made of a film that has 3 layers: Soap, then Water, then Soap. Because of the way that soap molecules are arranged, and the way they attract and repel from each other and the water, the soap creates bonds that give the water additional strength, and allow them them to last much longer. Bubbles will always be round when they are floating because the elastic nature of the soap bubbles allows air pressure to push equally on the entire surface of the bubble forming a sphere.
Bubble fun:
- You do not need bubble wands from the store to make bubbles. Simply dipping your hand in bubble solution and making a circle with your fingers makes a great bubble wand. Straws, plastic strawberry containers, fly swatters, and aquarium nets make great bubble wands.
- To make foamy bubbles, use a rubber band to secure a piece on cotton cloth over the end of a small section of plastic pipe. Soak the cloth in the bubble solution and blow from the other end.
- Pour a small amount of bubble solution onto a clean counter top and spread it out. Use a straw to blow a dome-bubble on the counter top. Keep blowing into the bubble to make it bigger and bigger. With some practice, you can get a bubble dome as big as a dinner plate!
