Bubbles refracting light

pwnell · Post by **pwnell** » Sun Mar 11, 2012 6:11 pm

Not sure exactly what the process is behind these optical oddities, but it was quite impressive to see this grouping of bubbles attracting (electrostatically?) other small bubbles and then forming this pattern as the light rays are bent. Anyone got the physical explanation for these light patterns?

rjlittlefield · Post by **rjlittlefield** » Sun Mar 11, 2012 6:54 pm

That's a lovely image! I certainly cannot recall having seen anything like this before.

I suspect the attraction is by surface tension, not electrostatic.

The light patterns, now that's a good question! Each surface will be a strong negative lens with significant reflection, so I suppose those "connectors" are actually due to light bouncing back and forth between the bubbles.

Can you make a tighter crop so we could see more detail about the patterns?

--Rik

pwnell · Post by **pwnell** » Sun Mar 11, 2012 7:02 pm

Not quite 100%, but much larger:

rjlittlefield · Post by **rjlittlefield** » Sun Mar 11, 2012 7:46 pm

Fascinating! I certainly don't understand what all is going on. The general shape of the bright triangles I can rationalize as a reflection from one bubble being refracted by its neighbor. But I have no idea why there is that fine pattern of concentric rings that seems to appear in all the bubbles, even without neighbors. Any chance those are due to actual rings around the periphery of the condenser system?

--Rik

pwnell · Post by **pwnell** » Sun Mar 11, 2012 8:02 pm

Is it not newton's rings?