Foam facts for kids

Kids Encyclopedia Facts
Foam - big
Soap foam bubbles
Aluminium foam
Foamed aluminium
Diet Coke Mentos
Diet Coke and Mentos foam "geyser"






Micrograph of temper (memory) foam

A foam is, in many cases, a multi-scale system. One scale is the bubble: material foams are typically disordered and have a variety of bubble sizes. At larger sizes, the study of idealized foams is closely linked to the mathematical problems of minimal surfaces and three-dimensional tessellations, also called honeycombs. The Weaire–Phelan structure is considered the best possible (optimal) unit cell of a perfectly ordered foam, while Plateau's laws describe how soap-films form structures in foams.

At lower scale than the bubble is the thickness of the film for metastable foams, which can be considered a network of interconnected films called lamellae. Ideally, the lamellae connect in triads and radiate 120° outward from the connection points, known as Plateau borders.

An even lower scale is the liquid–air interface at the surface of the film. Most of the time this interface is stabilized by a layer of amphiphilic structure, often made of surfactants, particles (Pickering emulsion), or more complex associations.

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Foam Facts for Kids. Kiddle Encyclopedia.