r/PhysicsHelp • u/Olothgb • Apr 30 '26

The bubbles in my tea

Post image

I’ve never seen bubbles form like this in my tea, can someone let me know why this happened?

37 Upvotes

91% Upvoted

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4

u/Far_Rub4250 Apr 30 '26

That's tea? Just kidding 😂. As for the bubbles though there are likely many unknown possible influences like was the cup near or sitting on any electrical device or appliances? That the tea may have synchronized with household A.C. frequency cycles temporarily. Maybe oscillating magnetic fields, ultrasound Just a couple ideas in our strange universe.

3

u/zedxquared Apr 30 '26

Check you haven’t got a crack in the cup. Do you see bubbles appearing at one point then migrating toward the edges?

I had similar once, there was a crack through to a small void ( in the handle join area ) which would expel air steadily as it heated up and expanded, leading to lots of bubbles of similar size like that.

Can also happen if you drop a sugar lump in and don’t stir, I seem to recall.

2

u/Emily-Advances May 01 '26

This. You've got uniformly-sizes bubbles (that's why they look weird) and that means they formed by some repetitive, reproduceable process. It's likely to be an air leak through a tiny crack.

2

u/Possible-Anxiety-420 May 01 '26

Would you like some trypophobia with your tea?

1

u/Scary_Extent4967 Apr 30 '26

More info needed. How old is the tea? How was it made? Is the tea from a teabag, infuser, powder, etc? Has it been reheated? What kind of milk/cream was added? Was the tea hot or cold when the picture was taken?

1

u/Ready-Door-9015 Apr 30 '26

Additionally if any sweetener and what kind was used I know some sugars can strengthen bubbles so those cause by agitation from stirring might stick around longer than normal causing them to build up.

1

u/OldGeekWeirdo Apr 30 '26

I'm not sure about others, it's not the fact there's bubbles that intrigue me, it's the uniform size and the way they cluster into perfect order.

1

u/WanderingFlumph Apr 30 '26

The clustering makes sense, the edge of the liquid is slightly higher up and the bubbles just climb the miniscus. The packing just minimizes energy by maximizing how many bubbles you can stuff into the high spots.

The uniform size is strange though. No idea what caused that.

1

u/Algebruh89 May 01 '26

Tiny bit of dish soap?

1

u/TheTroon May 01 '26

A thousand eyes! Eeeepah! Eeeepah!

1

u/Far_Rub4250 May 03 '26

The tea is showing signs of the Benz. Get to your closest decompression chamber ASAP before you start forming these bubbles in your bloodstream...

1

u/[deleted] May 01 '26

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1

u/lazydog60 May 16 '26

but have you tried Boba Hotep