Eureka! Additional Activities

Here are some Additional Activities that you might like to try for a little creative fun. Print this page of instructions if you would like to try a project outside!

Architects are artists!

The German architect Frei Otto experimented with bubbles and soap film to figure out how to enclose the greatest possible volume with the least material.

Giant temporary pavilion by architect Frei Otto

From his soap bubbles he was able to design giant temporary pavilions at exhibitions around the world and the roofs of arenas, airports and zoos. NASA Scientists also studied soap bubbles to get ideas for designing light furniture for space stations! You can try a soap bubble experiment and also make some interesting art in the process.

Bubbles share a flat wall at a 120° angle.

One bubble is a perfect sphere but when bubbles come together they share a flat wall that always meet at 120° angles because this arrangement requires the least amount of bubble film to enclose the air inside.

Instructions:

Paper cups
Waterpaints
Bubble mixture
White sheets of paper
Straws

Pour different colored paint into the cups and combine with bubble mix. Using the straws, blow bubbles in the mixtures so they form up and over the top of the glass. Blow the bubbles off the top of the glass so some bubbles fall onto the white paper. When the marks dry you will see how the different size bubbles have come together. When you look at the bubble patterns on the paper you will almost always see clusters of three bubbles divided by 120° angles just like Frei Otto saw! Blow some more bubbles and have some fun with mixing colors and sizes of bubbles on paper. You can also find some similar three-way patterns in geodesic domes, cracked dry earth and even beehives.