Name: Priya C.
Status: student
Age: 16
Location: N/A
Country: N/A
Date: Thursday, April 25, 2002
Question:
I have been asked for my physics assignment to explain
the phenomenon behind why when alcohol is added to an air bubble on
water, the bubble ends up pulsating up and down after a certain amount
of alcohol is added. I have interpreted this to be a surface tension
question however am unsure as to whether I am on the right track! Does
the fact that alcohol is added to the bubble have any effect?
Replies:
The effect you describe is called the Marangoni effect or Gibbs-Marangoni
effect.
The effect is graphically illustrated by a high alcohol content wine or
brandy. In either case what happens is the alcohol/water solution "wets" the
side of the glass and begins to "crawl" up the side against the flow of
gravity. This is a result of an increase in the surface tension of the
solution as the concentration of alcohol decreases due to evaporation. Water
has a surface tension of about 72 ergs/cm^2 and ethanol has a surface
tension of about 23 ergs/cm^2. As the surface tension increases there is a
tendency to "pull" the solution up. However, at the same time the
evaporation of the ethanol cools the solution increasing its density and
decreasing the rate of evaporation. Then gravity "wins" and the liquid flows
back down into the bulk solution. The process then repeats, so there is a
convection flow set up. The quantitative analysis of the physics is rather
messy, but if you search the term(s) using say: www.google.com you can
surely find it discussed at varying levels of sophistication. The effect
also occurs on the windshield of a car when the alcohol/water cleaner is
squirted on the glass, but it is less noticeable.
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