English

A new setup for giant soap films characterization

Soft Condensed Matter 2021-02-16 v1

Abstract

Artists, using an empirical knowledge, manage to generate and play with giant soap films and bubbles. Until now, scientific studies of soap films generated at a controlled velocity and without any feeding from the top, studied films of a few square centimeters. The present work aims to present a new setup to generate and characterize giant soap films (2~m ×\times 0.7~m). Our setup is enclosed in a humidity-controlled box of 2.2~m high, 1~m long and 0.75~m large. Soap films are entrained by a fishing line withdrawn out of a bubbling solution at various velocities. We measure the maximum height of the generated soap films, as well as their lifetime, thanks to an automatic detection. This is allowed by light-sensitive resistors collecting the light reflected on the soap films and ensures robust statistical measurements. In the meantime, thickness measurements are performed with a UV-VIS-spectrometer, allowing us to map the soap films thickness over time.

Cite

@article{arxiv.2102.06952,
  title  = {A new setup for giant soap films characterization},
  author = {Sandrine Mariot and Marina Pasquet and Vincent Klein and Frédéric Restagno and Emmanuelle Rio},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2102.06952},
  year   = {2021}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-23T23:07:54.708Z