Photographs by Andrew Davidhazy

Send me mail at andpph@rit.edu - thank you!

all images copyrighted but commercial reproduction rights or individual prints may be obtained from the author

Scientific and Technical Photography - The Air Bubble Page - photographs of buoyant air bubbles rising in liquids

These are photographs of air being expelled from a narrow tube at the bottom of a clear container into hand soap (clear liquid and nice bubble), clear water (small and confused bubbles), lamp oil (greenish liquid) and shampoo (blue liquid). Some of the bubbles (top row) were generated by forcing air into the tube (about 1/2 mm inside diameter) with a hand pump used to blow up balls like footballs and basketballs, volleyballs or soccer balls, etc. Others, (subsequent rows) maybe the more regular ones in hand soap and the water ones as well as the lamp oil ones, with a 12 volt inflation pump used for pumping up tires.



[air bubble rising through viscous liquid - composite]
[air bubble rising through viscous liquid]
[air bubble rising through viscous liquid]
[air bubble rising through viscous liquid]
[air bubble rising through viscous liquid]
[air bubble rising through light oil]
[air bubble rising through light oil]
[air bubble rising through light oil]
Bubbles rising
hand soap 1321
Bubbles rising
hand soap 1292
Bubbles rising
hand soap 1319
Bubbles rising
hand soap 1321
Bubbles rising
hand soap 1324
Bubbles rising
lamp oil 1331
Bubbles rising
lamp oil 1334
Bubbles rising
lamp oil 1340

[air bubble rising through liquid]
[air bubble rising through liquid]
[air bubble rising through liquid]
[air bubble rising through liquid]
[air bubble rising through liquid]
[air bubble rising through liquid]
[air bubble rising through liquid]
Bubbles rising
1365
Bubbles rising
1373
Bubbles rising
1375
Bubbles rising
1380
Bubbles rising
1389
Bubbles rising
1402
Bubbles rising
1409

[air bubble rising through liquid]
[air bubble rising through liquid]
[air bubble rising through liquid]
[air bubble rising through liquid]
[air bubble rising through liquid]
[air bubble rising through liquid]
Bubbles rising
1426
Bubbles rising
1455
Bubbles rising
1458
Bubbles rising
1471
Bubbles rising
1475
Bubbles rising
1511
The following set of air bubbles were generated with a large diameter air mattress pump acting through a sportball inflation needle that was connected to a flexible tube made from an electrical conduit or "wire" from which the stranded copper wires were removed leaving a plastic tube with about a 1/2 mm diameter through which the air was delivered. To stiffen the plastic tube and shape its position in the clear plastic container holding the liquids (such as hand soap. shampoo, lamp oil and water the copper wires were wrapped around the outside of the plastic and this provided the rigidity needed to stiffen the air delivery tube. In the seven images below the liquid was clear liquid hand soap and the original photographs were cropped, cleaned up and colorized (100% cyan and 100 % blue in Photoshop). The original image files remain in the air bubble archive however!

[air bubble rising through hand soap]
[air bubble rising through hand soap]
[air bubble rising through hand soap]
[air bubble rising through hand soap]
[air bubble rising through hand soap]
[air bubble rising through hand soap]
[air bubble rising through hand soap]
Rising
air bubbles
1561
Rising
air bubbles
1541
Rising
air bubbles
1543
Rising
air bubbles
1547
Rising
air bubbles
1550
Rising
air bubbles
1551
Rising
air bubbles
1558



Geometry of soap bubble junctions - Hexagons and Pentagons together!

OK ... here are some photographs that came about as a byproduct of making bubbles. Sometimes the soapy water would spill out of the container and I noticed all the soap bubbles tumbling out. So next time I decided to "catch" these bubbles and put them in the clear container by themselves. They made a most interesting pattern, sort of like on a soccer ball. A pentagonal shape surrounded by five hexagonal figures. Go figure ...
[soap bubbles forming hexagonal pentagonal cells] [soap bubbles forming hexagon pentagon cells] [soap bubbles forming hexagonal pentagonal cells] [soap bubbles forming hexagon pentagon cells] [soap bubbles forming hexagonal pentagonal cells]
Hexagonal and
Pentagonal Cells
Hexagonal and
Pentagonal Cells
Hexagonal and
Pentagonal Cells
Hexagonal and
Pentagonal Cells
Hexagonal and
Pentagonal Cells


Dripping faucet

OK - the following photographs show the "necking" effect when a drip looses its grip on the faucet and begins its downward voyage into the sink and out the drain joining millions of other drips around the world and eventually forming oceans.
[faucet drip necking]
[faucet drip necking]
[faucet drip necking]
[faucet drip necking]
[faucet drip necking]
[faucet drip necking]
[faucet drip necking]
[faucet drip necking]
[faucet drip necking]
[faucet drip necking]
Drip water
neck 0056
Drip water
neck 0060
Drip water
neck 0048
Drip water
neck 0084
Drip water
neck 0049
Drip water
neck 0086
Drip water
neck 0065
Drip water
neck 0080
Drip water
neck 0076
Drip water
neck 0081



Go to LIST of EXHIBITS for details on more mini-exhibits.

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