Soap bubbles, while delicious, are not known for their longevity. But with a bit of trial and error, a YouTuber recently attempted to dramatically improve both the bounce and size of each iridescent bulb. The results may not technically offer “endless” bubbles, but they’re still a big step up from your average summer creations.
The YouTuber Technology has documented their various creative constructs online for years, but his Endless bubble machine effort is a particularly creative example of design and problem solving. After surmising that one of the main limitations of a bubble is the source fluid, Engineezy (real name: Jay) theorized that the size of the bubble could increase exponentially through a system that provides a constant flow of necessary ingredients – which could be can even lead to a seemingly endless bubble.
An initial experiment with a large hand stick, while promising, left him unable to move fast enough to continue forming the bubble before it burst. The final solution, after many design iterations? Strapping a servo and DC motor-driven, rod-assisted, remote-controlled bubble-making device to his car.
A quick excursion to a nearby parking lot demonstrated the impressive capabilities of the bubble machine. Although he never achieved a consistent bubble tunnel, Jay did generate extremely large, individual bubbles before they popped.
“A bubble is an example of the delicate balance between the surface tension of the liquid, offset by the internal pressure of the air in the bubble,” he says. explains in his video. “This balance is so precise that even the slightest change can cause the soap bubbles to burst.”
The likelihood of small changes only increases as the bubbles lengthen, meaning that bursting is essentially inevitable in an uncontrolled environment. Therefore, he concludes that creating an infinitely long bubble is more theoretical than practical, at least without a laboratory-quality vacuum chamber scenario.
[Related: In the blink of an eye, robot sets new Rubik’s cube Guinness World Record.]
Engineezy may not have set a world record for the largest bubble with his estimated 15 meter long creation –according to Guinness, the record for net bubbles is 28,635 square meters, or about 308 square meters. That said, he is “fairly confident” that he has managed to build the largest bubble blowing machine in the world. And while it’s unlikely that many others will build a replica of his invention, he did introduce viewers to a popular concentrate recipe for making giant soap bubbles that requires just four easily available ingredients:
- 4 grams of polymer lubricant powder such as J-Lube
Mix all that with two liters of water, and you should have a concoction ready for all your bubble blowing needs.
