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Question
When the size of a soap bubble is increased by pushing more air in it, the surface area increases. Does it mean that the average separation between the surface molecules is increased?
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Solution
No. The average intermolecular distances do not increase with an increase in the surface area.
A soap bubble's layer consists of several thousand layers of molecules. An increase in the surface area causes the surface energy to also increase. This in turn allows more and more molecules from the inner liquid layers of the bubble to attain potential energy, enabling them to enter the outer surface of the bubble. Hence, the surface area increases.
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