Boo Bubbles - Ghostly Dry Ice
Bubbles are cool, but bubbles filled with fog are even
cooler. Just imagine the cool factor going up ten fold if
you could bounce and play with these bubbles. Boo
Bubbles are what you get when you fill a bubble with a
carbon dioxide cloud using Steve Spangler’s cloud
bubble generator. But he saved the best until last
because you’ll learn how to roll and bounce the
bubbles in your hands. It’s the combination of science
and performance art!
Materials
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Dry Ice Cloud Generator (see below)
Dry Ice
Liquid soap (Dawn)
Knit gloves
Bath towel
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Watch the video of the experiment
online at:
http://www.stevespanglerscience.co
m/experiment/boo-bubbles-dryice#experiment
Caution:
Dry ice can burn. Therefore, under no uncertain terms may you or any visitor touch, taste, or
handle the dry ice without proper the gear. Any such misuse of materials
will not be tolerated.
The Dry Ice Cloud Generator
The free end of the rubber tubing is attached to a small funnel or
something similar to help blow bubbles when it’s dipped into a soapy water
solution. The best advice is to start with the plastic jar and spend some
time walking through the plumbing aisles of your local hardware store.
Experiment
You’ll need some thick gloves to handle the dry ice. The knit gloves used
later in the activity do not give enough protection to your hands. Find a
good pair of leather gloves to protect your hands against the cold
temperature of the dry ice and you’re set.
Fill the jar 2/3 to nozzle with warm to hot water. Dry ice produces the best
fog when you use warm water. Attach the rubber hose to the side of the jar
(if it’s not already attached).
Drop 2-3 good size pieces of dry ice into the jar. Immediately the fog will roll
out of the jar. Practice covering the top of the jar with the lid to control the
flow of fog out of the tube. You don’t have to screw the lid onto the jar - just
hold it on top of the jar to force or more/less fog through the rubber tubing
in a spinning motion. Make a soapy solution by mixing a squirt (that’s a
Revised by Sophie Lee & Lisa Hoover, June 2008
technical term!) of liquid soap with about 4 ounces of water.
Dip the free end of the rubber tubing into the bubble solution to wet the
end of the tube. Remove the tube from the bubble solution with one
hand while covering the jar with the lid in the other hand. This will take a
little practice, but it’s easy once you get the hang of it. The goal is to blow
a bubble filled with fog. When the bubble reaches the perfect size, gently
shake it off of the tubing and it will quickly fall to the ground (it’s heavier
than a normal bubble because the bubble is filled with carbon dioxide gas and water vapor).
When the bubble hits the ground, it bursts and the cloud of fog erupts from the bubble. Very
cool.
Touchable Boo Bubbles
Blow a bubble about the size of a baseball. – Bounce the bubble off of
your gloves. Try bouncing the bubble off of your shirt or pants. As you’ll
soon see, some fabrics work better than others. Try bouncing bubbles on
a hand towel.
Steve Spangler combined the idea of filling bubbles with dry ice fog with
his Bouncing Bubble activity to create a Bouncing Boo Bubble. While
blowing bubbles indoors, you might have noticed the occasional bubble
that fell to the carpet but didn’t pop. Regular bubbles burst when they
come in contact with just about anything. Why? A bubble’s worst
enemies are oil and dirt. Boo Bubbles will bounce off of a surface if it is
free of oil or dirt particles that would normally breakdown the soap film.
That’s why you’re wearing knit gloves.
What is dry ice? Dry Ice is frozen carbon dioxide (C02), the gas we exhale
as we breathe. It is much denser and colder than traditional ice. Dry Ice is -109.3 ° F (-79.5° C).
Traditional ice is 32° F (0 degrees C).
Does dry ice melt? In addition, Dry Ice doesn't melt - it sublimates. Sublimation is the process of
going directly from a solid to a gas. Dry Ice by-passes the liquid form, giving it its name "Dry"
Ice.
Where can you buy dry ice?
Some Abertsons & A few AM/PM Mini Markets
Additional Info. The original idea of creating fog filled bubbles came from a demonstration
presented by Bob Becker in 1995 called a Leaky Faucet. Fog filled bubbles dropped from a
“faucet” made out of PVC pipe. Steve Spangler combined updated this idea by being able to
control the flow of the carbon dioxide gas with his Dry Ice Cloud Generator. Steve also added
his Bouncing Bubble demo using knit gloves to create a ghostly looking “touchable” bubble that
vanishes with a burst of smoke.
Revised by Sophie Lee & Lisa Hoover, June 2008