Elasticity of Flowing Soap films

The robustness of soap films and bubbles manifests their mechanical stability. The single most important factor underlying the mechanical stability of soap films is its elasticity. Non-destructive measurement of the elasticity in these films has been cumbersome, because of its flowing nature. Here we provide a convenient, reproducible, and non-destructive method for measuring the elasticity by generating and inspecting Marangoni waves. Our method is based on generating an oblique shock by inserting a thin cylindrical obstacle in the flowing film, and converting the measured the shock angle to elasticity. Using this method, we find a constant value for the elasticity of 22 dyne/cm in the commonly used range of film widths, thicknesses or flow rates, implying that the surface of the film is chemically saturated with soap molecules.