Gravity
When we do dishes, we think about how water moves with gravity here on Earth.
Here is a link to that blog post, about chores:
I pulled some of these words from that blog post, because they are useful here, too. I hope you don't mind.
Water sticks to itself. It can overfill a cup. When we add bubbles to the water those bubbles behave differently.
How does water behave in space?
Let's watch a calming video of astronauts interacting with water on the International Space Station. Here is a link!
When we ring out a wet rag on Earth, the water falls. That's what our 10 year old is showing you in this quick video.
But... What happens to it in space?
Check out this video from the Canadian Space Agency:
It's fun to think about how gravity impacts the various properties of water.
But what about air bubbles?
If an astronaut were to take a bubble wand to a space station, they could blow a bubble in space. The surface tension that usually keeps the bubble juice across the bubble wand on Earth would still do its job in Space. If an astronaut were to blow into the wand they would fill it with air all the same. That bubble might blow across the cabin just like it does in your backyard. But there are a few forces on Earth that won't be active in space.
Convection doesn't happen without gravity. That means the warm air won't rise and the cool air won't sink. We have another blog post on this topic. Here's a link: https://steamma.blogspot.com/2023/06/convection-and-wind.html
Because we have no convection, it may impact the bubbles in interesting ways. Let's think about it.
When we make bubbles, we form a thin film, or membrane, of soap, which moves and shifts and changes. Just how much of the structural integrity of that bubble is dependent on the presence of that constant movement? And just how much of that movement depends on convection?
I think I need some help from a friend to figure out what might happen next. Time for me find a friend to explain bubbles a little more for me.
I'll come back and add to this blog post, but for now, have fun thinking about it!
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