Do your kids love bubbles? This homemade bubble solution will be a hit! And, what’s even better? They’ll love learning about what makes bubbles work as they do. Blowing bubbles will be fun for everyone – you included!
What Are Bubbles?
Bubbles are pockets of soap and water that are filled with air. When soap and water are mixed together and the air is blown into the mixture, the soap forms a thin skin or wall and traps the air, creating a bubble.
Soap bubbles are not the only kind of bubbles. You can find bubbles in lots of liquids. You might see small bubbles in plain water, but they will always be in the water or floating on the surface of the water, not floating through the air.
There are bubbles in soda pop, too. The special thing about soap bubbles is that they can float freely in the air; they don’t have to be touching water or another liquid like most bubbles do. Can you find other bubbles around your house? What about something that is round and filled with air like a bubble?
(Some examples are balls, balloons, and bubble wrap.)
How does soap help make bubbles out of water? Soap makes the surface tension of water weaker than normal.
It also forms a very thin skin that is more flexible than water. When the air gets trapped under the surface of the mixture of soap and water, the flexible skin stretches into a sphere shape (round like a ball), making a bubble!
You can see the flexible skin that forms a bubble by dipping a bubble wand into some bubble solution. When you pull it out, the hole will be filled with a stretchable skin of liquid. If you blow gently on the skin, you’ll blow a bubble!
Why Do Bubbles Pop?
Since bubbles are made from soap and water, they can only last as long as the water lasts. In dry air, water evaporates- it is soaked up by the dry air around the bubble and the skin of the bubble gets thinner and thinner until it finally pops!
Evaporation isn’t the only thing that pops bubbles. Anything dry can pop them. When a bubble floats through the air and lands on your finger, on a blade of dry grass, the wall of your house, or your pet’s fur, the bubble will pop.
When something sharp and dry touches the bubble, it pokes a hole in the bubble’s skin, all the air goes out of it, and the bubble disappears! To learn how to touch a bubble without popping it, do the trick below in the Bubble Tricks experiment.
Homemade Bubble Solution
Follow this DIY homemade bubble recipe using a “secret” ingredient that will not only get you strong bubbles but giant bubbles! Compare this easy recipe with any mixture of soap and water.
Bubble Mixture Supplies:
- Liquid Dawn dish soap/dishwashing liquid (Joy or blue Dawn brands work best. Try to find one that doesn’t say ‘Ultra’)
- Warm water (tap water is okay, but distilled water makes the best bubbles)
- Clean container with lid
- Glycerin or light corn syrup
- Bubble wand or straw (You can find a worksheet about how to make a homemade bubble wand here.)
- Mason Jar (or some other container to store the homemade bubble solution in.)
What to do:
- Measure 6 cups of water into one container, then pour 1 cup of dish soap into the water and slowly stir it until the soap is mixed in. Try not to let foam or bubbles form while you stir.
- Measure 1 tablespoon glycerin or 1/4 cup of corn syrup and add it to the container. Stir the solution until it is mixed together. You can use the solution right away, but to make even better bubbles, put the lid on the container and let your super bubble solution sit overnight. (Note: If you used “Ultra” dish soap, double the amount of glycerin or corn syrup.)
- Dip a bubble wand* or straw into the mixture, slowly pull it out, wait a few seconds, and then blow. How big of a bubble can you make? How many bubbles can you make in one breath?
Bubble Pop Experiment with Homemade Bubble Solution
This experiment can be done with your homemade bubble solution and is an example of the
- Set the lid on the table so that the part with the lip is facing up. Fill the lid with bubble solution.
- Dip your straw into the bubble solution container so that it is wet halfway up the straw. Touch the straw to the lid and blow a bubble on the lid. Slowly pull the straw all the way out of the bubble.
- Now dip the pointed end of your scissors (or any pointy object) into the container of bubble solution. Make sure they are completely wet. Poke the scissors through the wall of your bubble. Watch what happens. Try it again with other pointed objects, just make sure anything you touch to the bubble is wet. Can you stick your finger through the bubble?
Making Other Bubble Recipes
Frozen Bubbles
Because making bubbles and bubble blowing is so much fun, try this fun simple recipe for making frozen bubbles.
Bubble solution is mostly made up of water. You already know that water freezes when it reaches a certain temperature and that you can make ice cubes by filling trays with water and leaving them in the freezer. Because the wall of a bubble is so thin, bubbles will freeze in a pretty short amount of time. Try this experiment with your homemade bubble solution and see what happens!
Colored Bubbles
You can have more bubble fun by taking the original homemade bubble solution and making it colored with a few drops of food coloring to have a colored bubble solution! Only one switch out to make from the original solution, instead of using regular Dawn dish soap, be sure to use a clear dish soap, like Dawn Essentials.
Big bubbles, colored bubbles, frozen bubbles, or just regular old bubbles, all make science fun. And, by making your own homemade bubble solution, you’ll save money and time!
