Naked Science Forum
Non Life Sciences => Chemistry => Topic started by: EvilFrog on 26/08/2009 13:30:03
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chang hui yun asked the Naked Scientists:
When we do experiments , such as the experiment to investigate the effect of temperature on the rate of reaction of an enzyme, gas will be produced and, through a delivery tube, transfer to another test tube that is filled with distilled water. In the distilled water, the gas forms bubbles.
Why does the gas, once it meets water, get wrapped into bubbles? How does the water form a membrane to wrap the gas?
What do you think?
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I'm totally surprised. More than 200 times this question has been viewed and it is lying here unanswered for over a month. We know well that water and gas are both fluids, and when two fluids of different densities are mixed together, they tend to get separated: in our earth, the lighter fluid moves up and the heavier one settles down. Same is the case when some gas is introduced into water. Due to their usual tendency, they try to move upwards. But while they move, cohesion causes the gas molecules to get accumulated as far as practicable. We perceive these accumulated clusters of gas as bubbles. We further know that the surfaces of all fluids behave like stretched membrane. We call this surface tension. Actually, in this case, water does not form any membrane as you say, but the gas forms one around its cluster, which prevents the water from entering the cluster. This is similar to how a sewing needle floats in water. Now dont ask why these bubbles are spherical in shape. If you do, please visit this website.<http://www.thenakedscientists.com/HTML/content/questions/question/1402/>
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Yup, clear. thanks for reply. [:)]