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I was recently observing the way bubbles move as they pop and disappear. I noticed that when bubbles destabilize and pop, the remaining bubbles immediately surrounding it will move to fill its place. I was wondering what the driving cause is here.

At first, I figured that stickiness was the cause. But, I don't think this would be a driving force unless perhaps the bubbles are clustered (i.e. they share at least 1 membrane).

I've also noticed this behavior in groups of individual, non-clustered bubbles. As an introductory physics student, I'm curious: what causes this phenomenon?

Qmechanic
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kettlecrab
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2 Answers2

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The blubbles exerce pressure forces with their neighboor through the shared membranes. Pressure is higher in blubbles than in free air, when within a field of bubbles it is balanced on each sides of bubble wall... as long as there is a neighbor. When this one pops, the rest of the pack around push towards the empty space.

Fabrice NEYRET
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The Nature is Smart; it prefers the state with the lowest energy (maximum entropy) in different manifestations.(surface tension in this case). Please refer to this link already answered. (Why does the nature always prefer low energy and maximum entropy?)

Community
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Benjamin
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