Why are bubbles (gas-filled envelopes made of a liquid film) naturally limited in size? Why don't you see ever see a bubble (water, soap, whatever) hold its integrity beyond a couple of inches in size. Why can't they be 100' in diameter, for example?

Brainyblonde

On October 9, 2005, John Erck of XTREME Bubbles blew the Guinness World Record largest free-floating soap bubble, 105.4 cubic feet (2.98 cubic meters) in size. If the bubble were filled with water, it would hold 788 gallons and weigh 3.2 tons. To give you another idea of its size, 13,627 baseballs would fit inside of it. The biggest bubble ever blown, according to the Funrise Gazillion Bubbles website, was 50 feet by 2 feet in diameter. David Stein of New York holds the Guiness World Record for the enormous bubble he created in 1988. http://bubbleblowers.com/records.html Nov 02 06, 1:39 PM

BungeeAZ

As long as the surface tension remains in the bubble, the bubble will remain "stable" until acted upon by a force to break the surface tension. I personally have made bubbles up to 24" in diameter using a home made recipe that was used at the New York Hall of Science when I was a tourguide there. Nov 02 06, 1:44 PM