Bubble

A bubble is a small amount of air wearing a very thin coat of water. It is round because it has nothing to hide, and it is temporary because it has nothing to hold on to.^[1]

Bubbles have an average lifespan of eleven seconds, or four seconds if a child has noticed them. No bubble has ever survived being admired for more than one full sentence.

Why bubbles are round

A bubble is round because a sphere is the shape that uses the least surface for the most inside. Bubbles did not work this out. They simply tried every other shape at once and kept the one that did not burst, which was round.^[2]

In 1974 the Square Bubble Working Group spent nine years and four thousand litres of soapy water attempting a cube. They produced a large number of round bubbles and one very clean laboratory.

Inside a bubble

The inside of a bubble is made of air that used to be outside. When the bubble bursts, the air goes back outside and behaves as if nothing happened. This is the only known case of air having a secret.

Being "in a bubble" means being cut off from the world. Actual bubbles are not cut off from anything; they are touching the world on every side, which is precisely their problem.

Types

• Soap bubbles: shiny, brief, slightly rainbow.
• Bath bubbles: numerous, and gone by the time you find the soap.
• Bubbles in a kettle: excitable.
• Bubbles in a puddle during rain: a sign of more rain, according to everyone's grandmother, who was right.

See also

• Water – the coat
• Circle – a bubble, flattened for diagrams
• Kettle – a bubble factory with a handle
• Bubble wrap – bubbles, kept in sheets

References

1. Suds, S. (2003). Thin Walls: A Life in Soap. Lather Press. p. 11 (the rest of the book burst).
2. Square Bubble Working Group (1983). "Final Report: Round". Single page.
3. Froth, F. (2017). "On Being Admired". Journal of Short Lives 4: 1.