LXXXII.<i>Bubbles and drops and Stokes' law</i>

Abstract

Summary This paper extends Stokes' calculations for the slow rectilinear motion of a solid sphere through viscous fluid, in the way he outlined, to the case where the sphere is composed of fluid. Experiments on the rate of rise of air bubbles in water-glass and in golden syrup, and on the velocity of the fluid in the neighbourhood of the bubbles in the former liquid, are in substantial agreement with the prediction that the bubble should rise one and a half times as fast as it would if it were solid. A smaller number of experiments on air bubbles and drops of syrup in castor oil also show reasonable agreement with theory. But those on water bubbles in castor oil indicate an effect due to surface contamination.