We finally know why bubbles rise in a straight line in champagne

The bubbles in champagne and other carbonated beverages can rise straight up thanks to the chemicals that give these beverages their flavor.

Each bubble in the liquid creates a wake behind it as it rises, and other bubbles can be knocked by this wake. A stable vertical column rises from the bottom.

Roberto Zenit and his colleagues at Brown University in Rhode Island removed gas from carbonated beverages such as sparkling water, beer and champagne. They then poured the liquid into a tank with a needle at the bottom, pumped a burst of air through the needle, and recorded how the foam rose.

The researchers combined these observations with a mathematical model that explains how certain properties of the liquid determine the amount of vortices that occur near bubbles. Researchers have discovered two features that cause vortices. These are the bubble size and the concentration of molecules called surfactants. These include fatty acids, which give champagne its fruity notes, and proteins, which contribute to the flavor of beer. By sticking to bubbles, these molecules can change how much the surface of the bubble can move.

Large oval bubbles and surfactant-coated bubbles promote more swirling and block the wake of nearby bubbles well enough to prevent lateral knock. This causes the bubbles to rise up and down in a stable vertical chain. Champagne bubbles are usually so small that they don’t form stable columns, but the fatty acids in sparkling wine do.

According to Stéphane Dorbolo of the University of Liège (Belgium), understanding the interaction between surfactants and foam is complicated. Insights such as those provided by new research may also have implications for still drinks like whiskey. Industry experts estimate the alcohol content by shaking the bottle and observing the froth, he says.

Gérard Liger-Belair, of the University of Reims, Champagne-Ardenne, France, says that understanding the behavior of groups of bubbles is important for industrial processes like foam flotation, which use bubbles to separate different particles in water. is also important.