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Physics

'Galloping' bubbles could act as tiny robotic vacuum cleaners

While experimenting with waves, researchers discovered that vibrating a container of liquid would cause bubble to "gallop" across its surface

By Sophie Berdugo

27 February 2025

A bubble seen galloping across a container

Pedro J. Sáenz et al. (2025)

Bubbles can be made to “gallop” across the roof of a liquid-filled container simply by shaking it up and down – a surprise discovery that could be exploited as a cleaning technique.

Pedro J. Sáenz at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and his colleagues were studying the behaviour of waves in a sealed container using vibrations when they made a chance discovery. The team found that shaking the liquid-filled chamber up and down at particular frequencies caused a bubble that had mistakenly…

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