Boo Bubbles - Ghostly Dry Ice A brand new dry ice demo for your Halloween science party. email to friend
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Making the Dry Ice Cloud Generator

The version of the Dry Ice Cloud Generator featured in the video was constructed out of a gallon size plastic jar with a 3 foot long piece of rubber tubing attached to the side. The goal is to attach the tubing to the top part of the jar so that the fog created by mixing dry ice and water blows out of the tube when you twist on the lid. The free end of the rubber tubing is attached to a small funnel or something similar to help blow bubbles when it’s dipped into a soapy water solution. The best advice is to start with the plastic jar and spend some time walking through the plumbing aisles of your local hardware store.

Experiment

You’ll need some thick gloves to handle the dry ice. The knit gloves used later in the activity do not give enough protection to your hands. Find a good pair of leather gloves to protect your hands against the cold temperature of the dry ice and you’re set.

Fill the jar half full with warm to hot water. Dry ice produces the best fog when you use warm water. Attach the rubber hose to the side of the jar (if it’s not already attached).

Drop a few good size pieces of dry ice into the jar. Immediately the fog will roll out of the jar. Practice covering the top of the jar with the lid to control the flow of fog out of the tube.You don’t have to screw the lid onto the jar - just hold it on top of the jar to force or more less fog through the rubber tubing. Make a soapy solution by mixing a squirt (that’s a technical term!) of liquid soap with about 4 ounces of water. For even stronger bubbles, use Extreme Bubble Solution.

Dip the free end of the rubber tubing into the bubble solution to wet the end of the tube. Remove the tube from the bubble solution with one hand while covering the jar with the lid in the other hand. This will take a little practice, but it’s easy once you get the hang of it. The goal is to blow a bubble filled with fog. When the bubble reaches the perfect size, gently shake it off of the tubing and it will quickly fall to the ground (it’s heavier than a normal bubble because the bubble is filled with carbon dioxide gas and water vapor). When the bubble hits the ground, it bursts and the cloud of fog erupts from the bubble. Very cool.

Touchable Boo Bubbles

Purchase a pair of inexpensive children’s gloves from your local department store (100% cotton gloves also work well).

Blow a bubble about the size of a baseball. – Bounce the bubble off of your gloves. Try bouncing the bubble off of your shirt or pants. As you’ll soon see, some fabrics work better than others. Try bouncing bubbles on a hand towel.

Steve Spangler combined the idea of filling bubbles with dry ice fog with his Bouncing Bubble activity to create a Bouncing Boo Bubble. While blowing bubbles indoors, you might have noticed the occasional bubble that fell to the carpet but didn’t pop. Regular bubbles burst when they come in contact with just about anything. Why? A bubble’s worst enemies are oil and dirt. Boo Bubbles will bounce off of a surface if it is free of oil or dirt particles that would normally breakdown the soap film. That’s why you’re wearing knit gloves.

Giant Boo Bubbles

Regular-sized Boo Bubbles are awesome, Giant Boo Bubbles are even cooler!  All you need are a few parts and pieces from around the house and you'll be making these giant, fog-filled bubbles in no time.

1. Cover a table surface with a thin layer of soap bubble solution and spread it around.
2. Fill the large water bottle with hot (NOT boiling) water and drop in a few large pieces of dry ice.
3. Place the shop-vac hose over the open nozzle on the large water bottle.
4. Gas will start flowing out of the hose... make sure you don't plug the hose so the gas can't escape... that never ends well, trust us.
5. Dip the open end of the hose into the bubble solution and put it down on the soap-covered table.
6. All of a sudenn, a giant Boo Bubble will start forming on the surface of the table!  Keep the nozzle down and your bubble will just get bigger and bigger and bigger.
7. When the bubble finally pops, all of that Carbon Dioxide gas will escape, leaving a ghostly fog behind.

Additional Info

The original idea of creating fog filled bubbles came from a demonstration presented by Bob Becker in 1995 called a Leaky Faucet. Fog filled bubbles dropped from a “faucet” made out of PVC pipe. Steve Spangler combined updated this idea by being able to control the flow of the carbon dioxide gas with his Dry Ice Cloud Generator. Steve also added his Bouncing Bubble demo using knit gloves to create a ghostly looking “touchable” bubble that vanishes with a burst of smoke.