You are currently browsing the daily archive for January 11th, 2008.
Industrial dish soap spilled across a metal tray is livid green against the silver, but the interplay of unstable surface tension is fascinating. Invisible bubbles pop and send flash-flame ripples through the pool; the surface pulls together, creating more circles and bubbles; others eventually collapse because the contracting surface draws together more soap, which puts pressure on existing bubbles. And then the even surface is too unstable to stay flat, and somewhere another bubble forms where the tension pulls the soap back apart.
Somewhere in my mind, I thank existence for giving me a mind that can understand why this works, and wonder if I’m just a little bit crazy, because soap surface tension reminds me of the way people act.
Then again, how many people have enough time, are bored on dish shift in their university dining halls, and have enough of flexible minds to contemplate a pool of dish detergent behind them?
