When conversation at dinner gets a bit boring, I often find myself staring at the bubbles in my fizzy drink. This leads me to a number of questions: 1) Why do we choose to carbonate our drinks? What benifits, regarding taste or otherwise, does fizziness provide. 2) Why do the bubbles always seem to come from the glassware they are stored in, and not from the centre of the liquid? and 3) Why do the bubbles not just rise up in one big bubble? Why, and how, do they keep coming in one near-constant stream?

The groups of tiny bubbles on the surface of my coffee accelerate towards eachother and combine when they get close enough together forming larger and larger groups. What force causes the acceleration? 

Groups of tiny bubbles on the surface of my morning coffee attract eachother. The smaller groups move towards the larger groups accelerating as they get near. The combined group then reforms into a circular shape, this goes on until usually there is one group left. There is also a narrow strip of bubbles around the edge of the cup's surface eventully pulls all other groups in. What forces are at work when the bubble are accelerating towards eachother?

When I run the hot tap at work very slowly it looks very cloudy, in fact its loads of tiny little bubbles. If I run the water faster they dissapear. I'm guessing some sort of cavitation is taking place.

Strangely this doesn't happen with the hot water at home.

Has anyone elso noticed this phenomonom?

cheers

fj

When water freezes inside various tubs and containers, sometimes the ice has large holes in it. They are roughly flying-saucer shaped and filled mainly withy air, but can also contain some liquid water. Dissolved air forms small almost cylindrical bubbles, but how are the large holes formed?

What is the velocity of soda bubbles? I have noticed that when I pour a bottle of soda into a glass, eventually I can match the speed of which I pour the soda out to the speed of the soda fizz, making the bubbles neither lower or rise. So, is it possible to calculate the speed of bubbles, or are there different variables that define it?

On a camping trip over the weekend we tested how a gummy bear would melt over a campfire. The result was an expanding bubbling effect. What exactly is it in the gummy bears which makes the food bubble up?