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If you attempted to create a soap bubble, by blowing air into soapy water, would it form if you did this inside a vacuum? What would happen?
Question Date: 2007-12-18
Answer 1:

No, but not because of the physics of blowing up a balloon (which is basically what you are doing). In order to make a bubble, soap must be liquid, or dissolved in liquid water. Liquid cannot exist in a vacuum; it would boil away to become gas.

However, if you had a membrane that was solid but elastic (e.g. the aforementioned balloon), then yes you could. The absence of pressure outside of the balloon means that it would expand dramatically, until the air pressure inside of the balloon equaled the surface tension of the balloon, or else the membrane gave way and the balloon popped. Any rubber balloon will pop if put in a vacuum, but there are materials for which weather balloons and the like are made that allow them to rise to where they are effectively in a vacuum.



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