What soap bubbles have to do with mathematics
Find out why mathematicians find minimal surfaces so very exciting. Let yourself be surprised by the surfaces that soap films can form and then climb into a soap bubble yourself.
Everyone knows soap bubbles and everyone loves them. They are filigree and yet amazingly robust. They float through the air in large and small shimmering balls and light up the eyes of children and adults alike.
Soap bubbles are only one of many forms that a soap film can take. What happens, for example, when you dip the wire model of a cube, a tetrahedron or a prism into soapy water and then carefully pull it out again? And can you actually climb into a soap bubble and look at it from the inside?
Try it out and find out why mathematicians since the 19th century onwards have been studying the incredible phenomenon of soap films and why they form minimal surfaces.
Exhibit: Mathematikum Giessen
