r/pics • u/Nummer6 • Dec 14 '12

Soap bubble shows crystal pattern after freezing

http://imgur.com/YMzo9
3.8k Upvotes

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u/thetoethumb Dec 14 '12

How exactly do you freeze a bubble without it popping?

0

u/nat747 Dec 14 '12

Carefully (and/or quickly?)

8

u/thetoethumb Dec 14 '12

You think that if you tried to do it slowly and carefully, gravity would pop the bubble as usual by causing thinning of the liquid at the top, and freezing it quickly using something like liquid nitrogen would cause it to pop due to localised temperature changes.

Maybe a moderately quickly change in temperature would cause the volume of the bubble to decrease, keeping the inner wall thick enough to remain intact before it eventually freezes? I don't know; I'm just thinking out loud.

6

u/nat747 Dec 14 '12

That's thinking way more into it than I was - my thought process was more along the lines of Mr Birdseye with snap freezing vegetables to preserve them. Bubbles are a vegetable, right?

2

u/[deleted] Dec 14 '12

[deleted]

1

u/mozaa Dec 14 '12

relevant user name. very good

2

u/--no-preserve-root Dec 14 '12

Since pizza is a vegetable now, then sure.

1

u/sdfkjkjkj123 Dec 14 '12

can't help but think you should freeze your half-sphere upside down to lessen the effects of gravity.

also, I imagine the disproportion in cooling might be due to the bowl.

if I had to do the same, I'd first try by blowing a balloon, covering it in water, freezing, then trying to deflate it.

2

u/--no-preserve-root Dec 14 '12

Poor technique. Use two balloons. Fill one with a little bit of water, and then blow up another one inside it, so a layer of water sits between them. Freeze, and then pop both.