Exploring the Colours of Soap Films in Motion @RiArchives

Ri Archives | Exploring the Colours of Soap Films in Motion @RiArchives | Uploaded October 2016 | Updated October 2024, 3 hours ago.
This film, possibly made at the Royal Institution in the early 1930s by ASG Lawrence, demonstrates the colours produced in soap films when a steady jet of air is directed over the surface. Soap films are thin layers of liquid surrounded by air. The soap film shown has been created by dipping a wire ring into a soap solution to form a thin film of the solution stretched flat across the ring. The viewer sees the switch from black and white, setting up of the demonstration, to colour to allow the bright iridescent colours produced by the interfering of reflected light waves, a process called thin film interference which is determined by the thickness of the film, to be shown. The air jet over the soap film allows streams and vortex patterns in a great variety of colours to form themselves over the film. On stopping the air jet, the colours re-arrange themselves to their previous positions, rising or falling in coloured showers according to their thickness relative to the position on the film at which they are released from motion.

This early demonstration film shows the further phenomena of soap films, the symmetrical patterns produced when the air jet is glanced off the film surface, the response of the soap film to sound disturbance, and the effect known as the 'black' condition where the soap film thins out to a few molecules of soap and water, passing beyond the stage at which interference colours can be produced. The demonstration goes on to show the effect that a wet pad of ammonia solution has on the soap film when held near. There is a further demonstration of rapidly producing the 'black' stage across the soap film, with the normally smoothly graded bands usually seen now being broken up by the rapid development, as the black area quickly extends by the aggregations of black 'clots' all over the soap film. The film ends with a nozzle pierced with four air holes sending air jets over the soap film surface, producing patterns of extended symmetry and beauty of contrast.

For this film, and several others in our collection, we have tried to contact any known copyright holders and believe it to be an orphan work. If you are the rights holder, would like it to be taken down, or have any more information, please get in touch at richannel@ri.ac.uk.

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Surface Chemistry - Thin Film Experiments with Dr Irving Langmuir

$Young and the Wave Theory of Light - with Sir Lawrence Bragg Sir Lawrence begins by outlining the two contesting theories of light: the particles theory and the wave theory, which were held in the eighteenth century. This he follows with a description and demonstration of Thomas Youngs famous pinhole experiment; an experiment which validated the wave theory. Sir Lawrence turns to diffraction, showing its effects with the use of Youngs original Wave Trough of 1800 and explaining interference fringes in a series of fascinating demonstrations. From the original programme notes: Sir Lawrence Bragg at the Royal Institution of Great Britain Since 1826 a series of lectures, planned for young people, has been given at the Royal Institution during the fortnight after Christmas. These lectures, adapted to a juvenile auditory to use the nineteenth-century phase, were started as a new venture in science teaching. It is the tradition to illustrate the CHRISTMAS LECTURES with numerous experiments which are on an impressive scale and as far as possible of a novel type. Many experiments first shown in the Royal Institution theatre have become classical bench-experiments in schools and colleges, and many of the best popular scientific books have been based on CHRISTMAS LECTURES. A scheme was launched in 1955 to give corresponding lectures throughout the school year, because it seemed very desirable to use the facilities and traditions of the Institution to the full and thus make it possible for a larger audience to participate. The idea was proposed in the first place to a few science teachers in schools, and with their help it was started in a small way. The lectures had an enthusiastic reception, and the scheme soon grew to its present proportions â€“ over twenty thousand young people now come to the lectures each year. The main idea behind them is to show experiments, illustrating the basic principles of science, which are on too large a scale or involve too complicated apparatus to be readily staged with school resources. The majority of the lectures are on physical subjects, but chemistry and biology are also represented. In 1965, Lord Bowden, who was then Minister of State in the Department of Education and Science, expressed a wish that the lectures given by Sir Laurence Bragg be recorded in the form of films, and arranged that a sum of money be earmarked for that purpose. The series Sir Lawrence Bragg at the Royal Institution is the result of his interest. The films have been commissioned by the Educational Foundation for Visual Aids and shot on the premises of the Royal Institution. At first an attempt was made to film the actual schools lectures, but there were a number of drawbacks to this procedure. Ideal positions for the cameras were not possible in a crowded lecture room. An hours talk is too long, the film had to be divided into three or four sections, and it was not easy to tailor beginning and ends to the sections. It was finally realised that it would be much better to shoot each film as a separate project, with no audience and complete freedom for the camera team to take the long shots and close-ups in the best way. The possibility of close-up shots is a great advantage, because it enables effects to be shown which it would be impossible to demonstrate in a large lecture room. The present series consists of sixteen films covering the schools lectures dealing with magnetism, the properties of matter, and vibrations and waves. It is hoped to include electricity and other subjects in a further series. In the main, the experiments are those actually shown in the schools lectures, modified for filming where desirable. The action before the camera is in each case carefully rehearsed so that the performance of the experiment is seen as clearly as possible. No attempt however has been made to prepare a script. The talk is quite informal, not a prepared one, in the belief that it will be fresher and more interesting if given in this way. It is hoped that the imperfections, inevitable in an impromptu talk, will be overlooked for the sake of its more personal nature. Crown copyright information is reproduced with the permission of the Controller of HMSO and the Queen’s Printer for Scotland. Subscribe to our other YouTube channel for weekly science talks and explosive short films: https://www.youtube.com/user/TheRoyalInstitution Were on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ri_science and Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/royalinstitution and Tumblr: http://ri-science.tumblr.com/$