Question: Will adding glycerin or corn syrup help your homemade bubble solution work better?
Summary: Making your own bubble solution is fun, but sometimes the bubbles don't seem to work as well as the solutions you buy in the store. In this experiment you can test if adding corn syrup or glycerin to your bubble solution will make it just as good as the stuff you can buy. This experiment will have you blowing bubbles!
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Materials Needed:
(Any of The Materials Highlighted in Blue are Clickable Links for Purchasing)
3 Glass Jars
Graduated Cylinder (for measuring liquid)
Distilled Water
Liquid Dishwashing Soap
Light Corn Syrup
Pipe Cleaners
Permanent Marker
Project Procedure:
1. Use the table below to make 3 separate bubble solutions in the Mason Jars, label these according to their ingredients.
| Ingredient | Solution #1 detergent only |
Solution #2 detergent + glycerin |
Solution #3 detergent + corn syrup |
| Water |
1 cup (240 mL) + 1 Tbsp (15 mL) |
1 cup (240 mL) | 1 cup (240 mL) |
| Detergent | 2 Tbsp (30 mL) | 2 Tbsp (30 mL) | 2 Tbsp (30 mL) |
| Glycerin |
-----
|
1 Tbsp (15 mL) |
-----
|
| Corn Syrup |
-----
|
-----
|
1 Tbsp (15 mL) |
2. Now make a pipe cleaner wand for each solution. Pinch a pipe cleaner in the middle and give it a kink. Bend one half of the pipe cleaner into a circle and twist together at the center. Repeat with the other two pipe cleaners, and make sure that all 3 wands are approximately the same size.
3. Go outside and test your bubble solutions. Blow a bubble and catch it on your wand. Immediately start the stopwatch and time how long the bubble lasts. This will take some practice, so try it out on some extra solution before you start!
4. Repeat the experiment as many times as possible for each solution.
5. Record your data in a data table like this one:
| Solution #1 - Bubble Time (secs) | Solution #2 - Bubble Time (secs) | Solution #3 - Bubble Time (secs) | |
| Trial 1 | |||
| Trial 2 | |||
| . . . . . . . | |||
| Trial 20 | |||
| TOTAL | |||
| Average Bubble Time in Seconds |
6. For each bubble solution, calculate the average time in seconds that the bubbles lasted. Do this calculation by adding up all of the data for a solution, and dividing by the number of trials for that solution.
7. Make a graph of your data. For each solution, make a bar of the average time in seconds that the bubble lasted.
8. Analyze your data. Which formula worked the best?
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