Keelay
New member
Another interesting question posed is can you fit more smaller bubbles in the same volume of water? The answer is probably practically yes, but it's a little complicated.
First to simplify it: Hypothetically, let's assume all the bubbles in the skimmer are the same size exactly. No this isn't reality but we will get there later. If we were to take a cube of water and measure it's volume and place the largest bubble inside that cube as possible it would look like:
The ratio of the volume of the sphere inside the cube and the cube's volume is the theoretical limit for how much air you can fit into a given amount of water (again assuming all the bubbles are the same size). Even if you made a 3D grid out of these cubes you would end up with the same ratio. Total volume / total spheres volume. One or many it's the same. There isn't a better way to fit more bubbles into the area.
Now lets expand on this and see if making smaller bubbles fit into the cube makes any difference. To keep it simple let's keep the same exact cube. Lets see how many bubbles we can fit into the cube by halfing the radius of each bubble:
The answer here is simple. We fit exactly 8 smaller spheres into the same cube. In my previous post we already established that 8 spheres with a half radius is the same volume as one sphere with the full size radius. Here is a diagram showing the 2D fit.
So by making the bubbles smaller we don't fit more in a given space. We do get the 2x surface area which should show up in our collection cup. Wew Hew! But our airflow meters will read exactly the same. Don't throw out your airflow meter just yet it still is useful, just be careful how you interpret its results.
So why did I say that, yes that smaller bubbles will mean higher air/water ratio? Let's break that original assumption. "All bubbles are the same size"
Lets assume that some bubbles combine and form larger bubbles or that even on generation they have different sizes. It's more realistic. We likely have a blend of bubble sizes in the skimmer. The beauty of smaller bubbles is they fit in between the bigger ones and break the "fixed" ratio we just established. At some point when we approach our set of smallest bubbles we will reach a limit which is affectively described above, but until then making smaller bubbles means that our skimmer theoretically can hold more air in that fixed volume.
So smaller bubbles mean more surface area AND a higher air/water ratio possible.
First to simplify it: Hypothetically, let's assume all the bubbles in the skimmer are the same size exactly. No this isn't reality but we will get there later. If we were to take a cube of water and measure it's volume and place the largest bubble inside that cube as possible it would look like:
The ratio of the volume of the sphere inside the cube and the cube's volume is the theoretical limit for how much air you can fit into a given amount of water (again assuming all the bubbles are the same size). Even if you made a 3D grid out of these cubes you would end up with the same ratio. Total volume / total spheres volume. One or many it's the same. There isn't a better way to fit more bubbles into the area.
Now lets expand on this and see if making smaller bubbles fit into the cube makes any difference. To keep it simple let's keep the same exact cube. Lets see how many bubbles we can fit into the cube by halfing the radius of each bubble:
The answer here is simple. We fit exactly 8 smaller spheres into the same cube. In my previous post we already established that 8 spheres with a half radius is the same volume as one sphere with the full size radius. Here is a diagram showing the 2D fit.
So by making the bubbles smaller we don't fit more in a given space. We do get the 2x surface area which should show up in our collection cup. Wew Hew! But our airflow meters will read exactly the same. Don't throw out your airflow meter just yet it still is useful, just be careful how you interpret its results.
So why did I say that, yes that smaller bubbles will mean higher air/water ratio? Let's break that original assumption. "All bubbles are the same size"
Lets assume that some bubbles combine and form larger bubbles or that even on generation they have different sizes. It's more realistic. We likely have a blend of bubble sizes in the skimmer. The beauty of smaller bubbles is they fit in between the bigger ones and break the "fixed" ratio we just established. At some point when we approach our set of smallest bubbles we will reach a limit which is affectively described above, but until then making smaller bubbles means that our skimmer theoretically can hold more air in that fixed volume.
So smaller bubbles mean more surface area AND a higher air/water ratio possible.
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