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Physics

Scientists can calculate the shape colliding bubbles will form

An experiment with soap bubbles shows how they assume different shapes when two of them touch, and at which size they will merge into one

By Karmela Padavic-Callaghan

27 March 2023

Two touching or “kissing” soap bubbles can detach, slide along each other sideways or shift to the side when they are pushed together or pulled apart.

You never see a soap bubble form in the shape of a cube or a diamond because it takes too much energy to keep the bubble’s molecules bound into these shapes. Instead, bubbles are spherical, which lets them keep their surface area, and the energy cost of maintaining it, as small as possible while also enveloping as much gas, like air, as they can. Friedrich Walzel at the University of Strasbourg in …

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