Go With The Blow

There's not much you can do with soap bubbles, except blow them, watch them float about andvanish into thin air - unless you are Tom Noddy.

BUBBLE-BLOWING extraordinaire Tom Noddy shares 5 things about bubbles you probably never knew:

1. Bubbles burst not because they come into contact with a sharp object. It happens becausethey touch a dry surface. You can use a wet straw to gently pierce a bubble and you won't succeed in popping it.

2. Humidity is good for bubbles. If the weather or surrounding is too dry, the bubble solution vaporises more quickly, causing the bubble to burst.

3. A single soap bubble in the air is a near perfect sphere. Surface tension acts to minimise the form of the object, and the sphere is the most economical shape in nature - it uses theleast amount of surface area to contain a given volume.

4. Bubbles are not weightless. In a room with no air circulation at all, bubbles will dropto the ground in a straight line. You see them floating and drifting about only because theyare carried by moving air.

5. To catch hold of a bubble, don't place the blowing stick under the bubble. Part of the bubble,outside of the contact surface of the blowing stick, will inevitably come to rest on the drywrist area causing it to pop. Always use a wet stick and hold it from the top. Lots ofpractice is needed, like 30years?