Car Becomes A Massive Bubble Machine

You’ve probably seen street performers or family members making giant bubbles at some point in your life. But what if you could go ever bigger…even approaching a bubble of infinite length? That’s precisely what [Engineezy] tried to do.

The common technique behind blowing big bubbles involves attaching a thick rope to two sticks, then dipping the sticks in bubble fluid. The two sticks can then be spread apart to act as a big triangular bubble wand to create massive bubbles.

So the idea here to create a giant bubble-blowing frame using the same technique, continually feed it with bubble fluid, and stick it on top of a car. Spread the wings of the bubble wand, and watch the bubble grow. Oh, and this setup uses special bubble fluid—made by mixing soap, water, and veterinary J-Lube in specific ratios. Feeding the car-mounted wand with fluid was achieved by tubing delivering a continuous flow. Early small-scale attempts created wild 25 foot bubbles, while the car version made one over 50 feet long. Not infinite, but very cool.

As it turns out, the science of bubbles is deep and interesting.

13 thoughts on “Car Becomes A Massive Bubble Machine

  1. I’ve been using this recipe for monster bubbles. I’m wondering if there has been any improvements? It’s pretty good though.

    1440 g water
    120 g fairy liquid soap
    60 g cornflour
    1 tbsp baking powder

  2. One obvious problem is that of lots of liquid pooling at the bottom of the bubble to the point where it drips down.
    The wiper idea may still hold water (scnr) when instead using a ring and spokes connecting to a central hub. Rotation could ensure even liquid loading while also having more control over the “wetness” of it.
    Wonder though whether it would produce a single bubble or nested bubbles.

  3. Funny. Just yesterday I was nearly run over by an idiot BMW convertible driver who was blowing bubbles while driving. He was wielding this comically-huge multi-barrel gun-like thing blowing massive clouds of bubbles, and giggling like a teenage girl.

    He was even less attentive than the usual Fine German Automobile driver around here, paying more attention to his bubbles (rater than the usual cell phone) than surrounding cyclists. It’s too bad my Kryptonite is too slow to unship for situations like this.

    I hope this bit of fun isn’t used in normal city traffic.

    1. > He was even less attentive than the usual Fine German Automobile driver around here

      I mean you gotta show some respect. It’s quite the achievement to attain negative attention, literally driving around stealing the attention of everyone else.

  4. I love this.
    I assume (guess) that the bubbles burst because they run out of liquid. Maybe trying in a very humid environment would help. A reason to go to the tropics.

  5. I wonder if a static setup with a fan would be more controllable. You’d have much more control over the air entering the bubble (volume, pressure, speed). The bubble also wouldn’t be subjected to the turbulence at the back of the vehicle. If outside it could be rotated with the prevailing wind to reduce the effect of crosswinds.

    1. Eventually gravity is going to catch up with the end of the bubble. So when driving you can use speed to create a longer bubble before the end of it hits the road. Of course all other conditions should be optimized to achieve this. Other option would be to do this standing on the edge of a cliff ;)

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