Experimenting with Bubbles
Did you know that before it pops, the skin of a soap bubble is only one-millionth of an inch thick?
The colors of a soap bubble come from white light, which contains all the colors of the rainbow. When white light reflects off of soap film, some of the colors get brighter, and others will disappear. We’ll show you how to make your own bubble solution. Then you can try some experiements with bubbles to learn more about them!
- A small clear plastic lid (from a yogurt or a margarine container)
- Some clear plastic tape
- A working flashlight
- One spoon
- A plastic straw
- A room that gets dark
- 1 gallon water
- 2/3 cup dishwashing soap
What To Do:
- First, you’ll need also to make the bubble solution by mixing the water and dishwashing soap together in a big bucket or dishpan. If you make this solution the day before you want to use it, you’ll get bigger, more durable bubbles, but it’s pretty good right away, too.
- Now tape the plastic lid onto the flashlight where the light shines.
- Turn the flashlight on and hold it so the light shines straight up.
- Dip your finger into the bubble solution and wet the lid. Next, holding the flashlight with the lid side facing upward, place a big spoonful of bubble juice on top of the lid.
- Take the straw, and blow one big bubble to make a bubble dome that covers the whole lid.
- Turn off the lights and hold the flashlight so that the bottom of the dome rests just above your eyebrows.
- Now, check out the magical colors! If you put the wet straw into the bubble dome and blow very gently, you can make great effects.
- Experiment with different angles of viewing the bubble dome.

















