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Soap Bubble Surface Tension Dynamics (2D)

A Young-Laplace soap-bubble lab: each bubble's internal excess pressure is ΔP = 4γ/R, so when a small, high-pressure bubble touches a larger, low-pressure one, air really flows from the small one into the big one until the small one vanishes.

Everyday Physics2DModerate60 FPS📱 Mobile-adapted⇄ 3D version
2d-soap-bubble-surface-tension-dynamics ↗ Open standalone

This 2D companion replaces the original's decorative floating-bubble shader with the physics its title actually promises: a soap film has two surfaces, so a bubble's internal excess pressure follows the Young-Laplace law ΔP = 4γ/R — smaller bubbles are squeezed harder than big ones. When two bubbles touch on the stage, that pressure difference drives a live volume-transfer calculation each frame, so the smaller, higher-pressure bubble visibly empties into the larger, lower-pressure one until it pops, reproducing the classic real-world demo where a small bubble shrinks into a big one instead of the two just merging evenly.

⚙ Under the hood

Young-Laplace soap-bubble lab: ΔP = 4γ/R computed per bubble, with touching pairs exchanging volume proportional to their pressure difference until the smaller one vanishes.

surface tensionyoung-laplacesoap bubblesair pressurecoalescence

2D · HTML5 Canvas 2D · 60 FPS target · runs fully client-side, no install

Why does a small bubble shrink into a bigger one?

A soap film has two surfaces, so its internal excess pressure follows the Young-Laplace law ΔP = 4γ/R — the smaller the radius, the higher the pressure. When two bubbles touch, air flows from the higher-pressure small bubble into the lower-pressure large one until the small one empties out.

What does the surface tension slider change?

It sets γ in the ΔP = 4γ/R formula. Raising it increases every bubble's internal pressure and speeds up how fast a small bubble empties into a larger one when they touch.

What did you find?

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