


That’s because pressure develops around objects as they move through liquid, and that pressure becomes a force when it’s applied across their surface, Zenit explained. Small bubbles often keep their spherical shape, while large bubbles are more prone to this phenomenon. When bubbles travel through liquid, they can experience deformation. “To bring water to your house, you apply this force using a pump and that causes the flow.” “That non-stopping deformation is what we call flow, and that’s what liquids do,” Zenit said. A force applied to a liquid, on the other hand, results in flow, or continuous deformation. If you put a rubber band around your fingers and stretch it out, that’s an example of deformation.

One is deformation, or the effect of application of a force to a material. There are a few things key to understanding this flow. The term “phase” in this case refers to states of matter the two phases in Champagne are the liquid itself and the dissolved carbon dioxide gas responsible for the bubbles. Getting bubbly with physicsĬarbonated drinks like Champagne are examples of a two-phase flow. Here’s how Champagne bubbles pull off their neat, elegant dance, and why the findings of this research are important for other industries. She added that bubbly liquids have “a wide range of applications.”īut what does all of this actually mean? Answering that question requires a brief crash course in physics. “Apart from a new way to appreciate a glass of champagne, these findings bring us one step closer to understanding the complicated physics behind bubbly liquids,” Carmen Lee, a postdoctoral researcher in physics at North Carolina State University who was not involved in the study, told the PBS NewsHour via email. Their big conclusion? One way small bubbles can remain in a stable chain like you see in a Champagne flute is if the liquid they’re moving through contains molecules that attach to their surface, making the bubbles more rigid. READ MORE: The food science behind what makes leftovers tasty (or not)
#BUBBLE BUBBLE BUBBLE BUTT CRACK#
To crack the code, Zenit and his colleagues observed bubbles within several liquids, including sparkling water, beer and Champagne, and used numerical simulations to calculate quantitative measurement of forces within them, like the velocity of the bubbles and the fluid around them. “So basically, it’s just an excuse to explain bubbly flows in everyday life,” he said. Unraveling the mystery of bubble dynamics, he said, is key to understanding these systems. Two-phase flows play a role in a variety of processes, from the production of penicillin to ocean seeps, or methane bubbles that emerge from the ocean floor, Zenit explained.

“This research is important to answer questions about natural phenomena and industrial applications where bubble motion is important,” said Zenit, whose research group has long studied bubble dynamics, in this case, “how a volume of gas moves inside a liquid” within a two-phase bubbly flow. They were inspired to pursue this question not only for the sake of good old-fashioned curiosity, but also because there are a wide range of practical reasons to study bubble chains, said Roberto Zenit, a professor of engineering at Brown University who co-authored the study. If so, you share that experience with an international group of researchers, who decided to investigate why bubbles in carbonated drinks behave the way that they do. Have you ever gazed into your Champagne flute at a party and been mesmerized by the endless, uniform march of bubbles rising up from the base of the glass?
