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Finally, an indoor video setup that can be used to capture some of the nuances of color profiles that occur at different dilutions -- an important exercise for refining bubble juice. And, I was able to see that adjusting the pH of Dawn Pro has a significant impact on the soap film.

20130918_Color_Profiles_-_side_view

20130918 Color Profiles - side view

Dawn Pro at 50:1 with and without baking powder and at 10:1

20130918_Color_Profiles_-_Top_View

20130918 Color Profiles - Top View

Dawn Pro at 50:1 with and without baking powder and at 10:1

It has been driving me nuts that to do dilution testing and compare film thicknesses I have had to go outdoors with tristrings. My attempts to capture the nuances of color profiles has always failed indoors. I have tried numerous setups. In the past month, I have spent a few minutes a day trying different setups and finally found one that seems to be pretty useful. It involves going into the laundry and putting a floodlight on the ground pointed away from the washing machine and putting my longevity test setup on the washing machine with a sheet of black board behind it.

The bubbles below were created using myLongevity Test setup. Video was recorded and frames were extracted at important times in the bubble developement. The top row of images are the bubbles as they appeared 60 frames (2 seconds) after the bubble was created (determined by the first outward bulge when lowering the device). The photos on the bottom row are the same bubble at 300 frames (10 seconds). It is pretty clear that adding the baking powder had a significant impact on the film thickness. Note that many trials were done and the results were consistent.

The solutions were just tap water and Dawn Pro. The 50:1 bp solution had a small amount of baking powder added. Its pH was 7.4. The other solutions had a pH of about 9.0. Our tap water has been unusally high lately (9.6) as measured with a calibrated pH meter (accuracy 0.2).

The impact of the baking powder is unmistakable. The 10:1 bubbles had a noticeably shorter lifespan than the 50:1 bubbles. The 50:1 with baking powders bubbles were lasting on an order of 40 to 50 seconds and the 10:1 bubbles rarely made it past 20 seconds. The 50:1 bubbles without baking powder lasted 30 to 40 seconds.

The colors of the thinner films showed much more swirling than the thick-filmed 50:1 without baking powder.

As a follow-up, I need to see if the same film-thinning and longevity increase happens with other methods of lowering the pH. I

Films compared


20130918 1702 longevity setup CROP

Setup used for the pictures o this page

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