Do an Apple Bubble Experiment

Water, milk, an apple and a quick lesson

Materials

• 1 apple

• Water

• Milk

• Straw

Directions

• Pull the core out of the apples with a sharp knife.

• Put 1-2 tbsps of water in each apple.  Let your kiddos blow bubbles in the water!  They’ll pop quickly, usually before they ever get out of the apple.

• Add 1-2 Tablespoons milk to each apple.  Now let your children blow bubbles in their mixtures.

What’s Happening

Because of the shape of water molecules, water has a very high surface tension...it tends to stick to itself very tightly, like a stretched-rubber band.  If you blow a bubble into plain water, it will pop quickly, like stretching the rubber-band so far it breaks.

Milk has a lot of proteins in it that connect together, creating a type of film that can stretch.  Milk has less surface tension than water because of these proteins.  It is like the rubber-band is not stretched as far.  The milk has enough protein in it that you can even make juice/milk bubbles easily.

adapted from Preschool Powol Packets