How does gravity effect the shape of soap bubbles?
342506
Gravity has negligible effect on the shape of soap bubbles, much like gravity has negligible effect on the atoms.\n\nThe shape of a soap bubble is a sphere because it is the shape that minimizes the surface tension. The force of the surface tension is so strong that gravity is negligible.\n\nAs a note, in atoms, the effects of gravity is negligible because it is depending on the mass of the object. The mass of an atom is so small, hence the force of gravity is really small and thus can be ignored when looking at the interactions of individual atoms.
630018
When you softly place a pin onto the surface of water (horizontally) it doesn't sink because the weight of the pin is balanced by the upward (vertical) component of surface tension. When you add a detergent powder it reduces the viscosity of water and hence the upward force due to vertical component of surface tenbsion decreases and hence it sinks.
127596
Probably because the dye that colors the soap is not a compound that froths and bubbles the same way soap does, if it does at all. It also might be spread out too much as the soap expands into bubbles to be seen clearly.
580873
Specific gravity and molecular adherence
401485
Well ... nature does love economy! A sphere has the smaller surface area for the same volume that any other three dimensional shape.Also, in regular conditions,  there is no pressure variance inside or around the sphere to cause deformation.
185393
Bubbles form spheres because spheres have the smallest possible surface area for their volume. \n\nThe table below compares several different shapes and their surface areas to a sphere.\n\nSurface areas of shapes with the same volume\n\n\nShape\n Number of sides\n Volume (units3)\n Surface Area (units2)\n Area/(Area of sphere)\n (Area of sphere)/ Area\n \nTetrahedron\n 4\n 1\n 7.21\n 1.49\n 0.67\n \nCube\n 6\n 1\n 6\n 1.24\n 0.81\n \nOctahedron\n 8\n 1\n 5.72\n 1.18\n 0.85\n \nDodecahedron\n 12\n 1\n 5.32\n 1.10\n 0.91\n \nIcosahedron\n 20\n 1\n 5.15\n 1.06\n 0.94\n \nSphere\n infinite\n 1\n 4.84\n 1\n 1\n \n\nBTW - You can make a cubicle bubble\n\nUse a cube shaped bubble frame. Dip the frame completely into the bubble mix. This makes several bubble films forming a square in the middle. Dip again, but only immerse one side of the frame. A near-cubical bubble will form in the centre of the frame, surrounded by films (it may be necessary to burst a few bubbles near the centre to get just one bubble). \n\nBurst the films around the bubble one at a time. The 'cube' will be revealed to be a sphere stretched out by the films around it. \n\nAlthough a single bubble will always try to form a sphere, other shapes can be made by having several bubbles and films touching. When bubbles and bubble films meet, they always obey certain rules: \n\nFilms and edges always meet each other at equal angles, so three films meeting at an edge will be 120° and four films will be 90° apart. \nThere are never more than two films at an edge. \nThere can never be more than four edges or six films meeting at a point. \nThese rules are all consequences of the "Golden Rule of Bubbles". From these rules, it can be shown that the bubble was not a true cube, as the edges and faces did not meet in right angles. It bulged slightly.
602329
If it's not due tomorrow, you can make a mixture of Ivory powdered soap and a little water. This mixture becomes light and fluffy when you mix it with an egg beater. Then you can shape it any way you want.
187607
The density of water is about 100 times the density of any gas .\nSo the gas will be lifted. (Archimedes law).\nBasicly the gravity energy decreases.
105492
Bubbles are round because doe to the given volume (the air you give it), a sphere (round) will give the optimized (greatest) surface area for the given volume.
84665
Air bubbles float up in water due to buoyancy because they displace the weight of water equal to their volume.  Water pressure is greated at greater depths therefore there is slightly more hydraulic pressure upwards on the bottom of the bubble than downwards on the top and the bubble is pushed upwards.  As the air bubble rises the pressure is reduced allowing the bubble to grow and it increases in volume and buoyancy as it travels to the surface.  This effect can also release and grow excess nitrogen in the blood of a diver causing growing nitrogen bubbles that cause great pain or even death and is called the bends (occurring especially in large joints that bend).\n\nOf course, soap bubbles float up in air due to air currents.  In a still room they float down to the floor and pop!
478525
Everyone says that The surface tension causes the bubble to be spherical. But how? and Why? \n\nLets explain surface tension first- \nIn an air-water interface, the molecules that are close to the surface are attracted by fewer molecules of the liquid than the ones that are NOT close to the surface. The former thus, has less attractive potential energy than the latter, right?\n\nNow, for any matter (solid or liquid), attractive potential energy results in stability & repulsive energy results in instablity (common sense). \n\nSo, it is energetically unfavourable to have a surface for a liquid (or solid) as it results in loss of attractive potential energy.\n\nNow, for that reason, a bubble wants to have the lowest possible surface area to remain stable. Now, using some high level mathematics, someone found out that a sphere has the lowest possible surface area for a given volume. (it is better than a cube atleast).\n\nHence why we can see that the water bubbles and drops tend to be spherical. Due to the effect of gravity, although the drops appear oval in shape but, in the absense of gravity, all the liguid-air surfaces tend to be spherical.\n\nI hope it helped.\nHave a nice day!
69283
There is a solution used by magicians to make bubbles that are more difficult to break than ordinary bubbles.  These bubbles can be caught and bounced in your hand if you are wearing soft cotton gloves.  This type of bubble could possibly be forced into a square shape, however it would loose it's hard angles the second it was set free.  The force of pressure inside the bubble is always going to force it to expand into a more bulbish rounded shape.  So the answer is YES you can MAKE a square bubble, but it wont stay that way.
623511
Water molecules are polar (they have a positively charged end and a negatively charged end), and they can strongly attract one another. At the surface of the water, the molecules attract their neighbors beside and below them. The mesh of attracting molecules makes the surface harder to pierce or expand. Pure water doesn't foam when it boils because it's hard to stretch the surface out to make bubbles. The phenomenon is called "surface tension".\n\nNow drop some pasta in the pot. As it cooks, organic materials (proteins, among other things) are released into the cooking water. Some of these organics have hydrocarbon parts that don't dissolve in water, and polar parts that do dissolve. They collect on the surface of the cooking water, with the polar pieces sticking into the water and the hydrocarbon pieces pointing upwards. The tight mesh of attracting water molecules is disrupted. It becomes much easier to expand the surface into bubbles. As the water boils, foam starts to form on the surface. (Soap makes suds in a similar way.)\n\nDrop a teaspoon of olive oil into the pot. The oil won't mix well with the water, and many tiny oil droplets are formed. The oil droplets at the surface act as bubble breakers. When a bubble of foam starts to form, it encounters an oil droplet. The part of the bubble that encountered the oil droplet has a much different surface tension than the rest of the bubble, and the stress pops the bubble before it gets very large.\n\nA little dab of butter or vegetable oil will work just as well.
263044
when soap is mixed with water, it increases the surface tension so that when air bubbles get underneath, cant break through the increased surface tension.
404840
Bubble side goes down, smooth side up.
102758
Yes gravity has effect on gas molecules.\n\nNewton's Law of Gravitation governs the attraction between earth and the gas molecules. It is similar to solid or liquid molecules. However the density (mass per unit volume) incase of gases is very low so the attractive force is not easily felt.\n\nGoing up or down of gas molecules is governed by two other factors.\n1. The kinetic energy of gas molecules is so high that the gas molecules easily move in all directions, but to a certain limit thus the gas molecules also move up.\n\n2. When there are mixtures of different substances the heavy molecules are more affected by the gravity and so they remain close to the earth and the light molecules settle above. This applies to all states of matter e.g. wood flots on water.
262021
As the mass increases so does the gravity. A spherical object is shaped this way because of its gravity. The larger the sphere gets the smaller the curvature of its surface becomes. It is related but curvature is more of a side effect of a large rotating object. Gravity is dependant upon the mass of the object not the curvature of it.