Supervisor: Karsten Riisager

All children, large or small, young or old, find soap bubbles fascinating. But how can the world record free-floating soap bubble be almost 100 m³, when the thickness of the walls is only a few microns thick. In this colloquium we will investigate why soap is needed to make bubbles, and what additional ingredients is necessary for the formation of extremely large bubbles.

Soap bubble enthusiasts have created an extensively online wiki with detailed and tested recipes. These recipes indicate the need of long-chain polymers, such as Guar Gum or J-Lube. Different concentrations of the two polymers are examined in a paper by Stephen Frazier et al. titled “How to make a giant bubble”. The findings of this paper will be discussed along with some personal experiences with creation of large bubbles.