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From Soap Bubbles to Technology Feature Summary

Type:
From Physics Research
Title:
From Soap Bubbles to Technology
Description:
The soap film you see here, made in between two metal rings, is called a catenoid, and it uses the minimum area to enclose a given volume. Click on the image to see another example of a "minimal surface" soap film.

- Minimizing area can reduce construction costs--see this catenoid-shaped cooling tower, from this Wikipedia page.
- To learn more, visit From Soap Bubbles to Technology.
Image:
Image credit: <a href="http://www.soapbubble.dk/en/" target="_blank">soapbubble.DK</a>; <a href="http://www.soapbubble.dk/en/bubbles/geometry.php" target="_blank">image source</a>; <a href="http://www.compadre.org/Informal/images/features/soap-bubble-large-7-6-101.gif" target="_blank">additional image</a>
Image credit: soapbubble.DK; image source; additional image
Image URL:
http://www.physicstogo.org/images/features/soap-bubble-large-7-6-102.gif
Featured:
July 16, 2010 - August 1, 2010