2007-12-21 05:32:02 · 15 answers · asked by ben t 3 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Chemistry
Bubbles are really thin, about 10 times thinner then a strand of hair, it's impossible for them to show any color.
2007-12-21 06:28:53 · answer #1 · answered by NinjaSquirrel 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
They are NOT "always white" First off, if you look at the bubbles themselves, you will notice almost every color of the rainbow on the, same as a puddle of water, with some oil in it, in the parking lot. It's called "thin film refraction" and the light is being bent by the varying thickness of the stuff the bubbles are made of, resulting in all different colors.
2007-12-21 13:43:54 · answer #2 · answered by Charles M 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
because the bubble bath is such a small percentage of the bubble. It's still that little capful of pink in side the bathtub of clear. But it acts as a surfactant (a substance which increases the surface tension of a liquid), and makes the water capable of becoming a film required for bubbles. The bubbles then refract and reflect the light back out, without really absorbing any of it (at least not any specific color of it more than another), and so the light reflected back out is white.
2007-12-21 13:36:35 · answer #3 · answered by Your Weapons Are Useless Against Us 3 · 1⤊ 2⤋
I bet if you look closely at the surface of a single bubble, you'll see it's got rainbow colored bands, like a oilly liquid.
That's because the thickness of the bubble surface changes dynamically, and the color of the light that's ultimately reflected back to your eyes depends on the thickness of that film.
2007-12-21 13:47:14 · answer #4 · answered by nicholasm40 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Read this article from Popular Science about a man who has been trying for 11 years to make a colored bubble (its not as easy as you might think):
http://www.popsci.com/popsci/science/0a03b5108e097010vgnvcm1000004eecbccdrcrd.html
This may help explain why (normal) bubbles aren't colored.
2007-12-21 13:45:08 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Why is water clear but the ocean is blue?
The concentration of coloring used is so small that when the bubbles are created the dye has a vast molecula breakdown.
2007-12-21 13:37:31 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
The wall of the bubbles is so thin that they do not absorb enough light to result in a color change in the scattered and reflected light.
2007-12-21 13:36:19 · answer #7 · answered by Helpful person 5 · 2⤊ 1⤋
The foam looks white because it scatters light.
There isn't enough fluid in the bubble walls to
show color.
2007-12-21 13:43:28 · answer #8 · answered by Irv S 7 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Because the coloring isn't intense enough to show on the very very very thin membrane of a bubble.
2007-12-21 13:36:07 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 2⤋
because the soap is being diluted by the bathwater, theres couple gallons of water in a bathtub compared to a couple tablespoons of bubble bath.
2007-12-21 13:36:23 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 2⤋