J
Jade
Guest
O.K, I thought I would try to give a few details on a photography subject that has me fascinated for some strange reason...<i>light refraction/reflection</i>. I'm terrible at explaining things and have tried to make what I wrote easy to understand (<i>meaning I left a lot out</i>). Guess I just got really bored the last few nights and decided to try and learn the physics behind a bubble, but mostly soap film itself. God i need a life.
Soap films are basically made up of water trapped between two layers of soap molecules. The soap molecules (<i>carbon & hydrogen atom chains</i>) protrude from the surface of the water and keep the water from evaporating. When stretched across a flat, open & upright surface the soap film stands on the outside (<i>front & back</i>) holding the water in the center like an oreo cookie. From what I understand the distance in between the front & rear soap surfaces determine what colors are visible. Thicker films give the lightwaves more room to travel and spread out, making them muted and lower in contrast when photographed. Thin films give the light little distance to travel inside the "liquid sandwhich" and therefore the waves of light are thinner and more intense in color.....but don't last very long. Light enters the "liquid sandwhich" and reflects off the front or rear surface bounding back where some of the light waves escape, and the rest converge with other rebounding light waves and what happens next is a bunch of other stuff I don't have enough headache powders to explain<img src="">. Basically, the reflected light waves converge and cause the colors we see. At it's beginning, a soap film has gravity working against it constantly. The top begins to thin as the water inside drains downward. Less water...less internal distance between soap layers...less colors and they begin to fade as well.
As the water drains down the film gets thinner at it's top and eventually fades to a black & white tone and looks like a dried, skeletonized leaf. I've read that at this point the film is no more than 10 nanometers thick whereas visible colors indicate a thickness of a few hundred NM's. But who cares about nano's, the stuff is pretty.....right! Soon the water drains off and it reaches an equilibrium and becomes to thin sustain itself.....POP!!!
But before that I try to get these images.....so enjoy<img src="">. And I hope my science wasn't too far off.<img src="">
Soap films are basically made up of water trapped between two layers of soap molecules. The soap molecules (<i>carbon & hydrogen atom chains</i>) protrude from the surface of the water and keep the water from evaporating. When stretched across a flat, open & upright surface the soap film stands on the outside (<i>front & back</i>) holding the water in the center like an oreo cookie. From what I understand the distance in between the front & rear soap surfaces determine what colors are visible. Thicker films give the lightwaves more room to travel and spread out, making them muted and lower in contrast when photographed. Thin films give the light little distance to travel inside the "liquid sandwhich" and therefore the waves of light are thinner and more intense in color.....but don't last very long. Light enters the "liquid sandwhich" and reflects off the front or rear surface bounding back where some of the light waves escape, and the rest converge with other rebounding light waves and what happens next is a bunch of other stuff I don't have enough headache powders to explain<img src="">. Basically, the reflected light waves converge and cause the colors we see. At it's beginning, a soap film has gravity working against it constantly. The top begins to thin as the water inside drains downward. Less water...less internal distance between soap layers...less colors and they begin to fade as well.
As the water drains down the film gets thinner at it's top and eventually fades to a black & white tone and looks like a dried, skeletonized leaf. I've read that at this point the film is no more than 10 nanometers thick whereas visible colors indicate a thickness of a few hundred NM's. But who cares about nano's, the stuff is pretty.....right! Soon the water drains off and it reaches an equilibrium and becomes to thin sustain itself.....POP!!!
But before that I try to get these images.....so enjoy<img src="">. And I hope my science wasn't too far off.<img src="">