Bringing Fluid Dynamics to Life: A Visual Physics Show for Science Museums & Cultural Centers

José Ángel Fernández

2 min read

Not Just Entertainment: A Masterclass in Minimal Surfaces

The Science Concepts Behind the Art (Syllabus)

Visualizing the Invisible: The Marangoni Effect on Stage)

Technical Feasibility for Museums and Auditoriums

Conclusion: Making Science Unforgettable

Textbooks teach facts, but art creates memories. The most effective way to engage the public with STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) is to ignite their curiosity through wonder.

When a child—or an adult—sees the rigorous laws of physics dancing in the air, the barrier between "boring science" and "magical reality" disappears.

Program this Experience for your Season

Bring a performance that aligns with your mission to educate and inspire.

Contact for Cultural Programming to request the Educational Dossier and discuss technical requirements for your auditorium.

We understand that Museums, Cultural Centers, and Heritage Sites have strict conservation protocols. Our show is engineered to be low-impact and respectful of the venue.

Contained Performance: All liquid handling is confined to a specific stage area.
Floor Protection: We utilize professional stage coverings to ensure the venue floor remains dry and pristine.
Safety First: The chemical solution is non-toxic, non-flammable, and safe for indoor environments.
Quick Turnaround: Setup and teardown are designed to fit within tight programming schedules (60 min setup / 30 min teardown).

One of the show's highlights is the live demonstration of the Marangoni Effect.

This phenomenon describes the mass transfer along an interface between two fluids due to a gradient of surface tension. On stage, this looks like magic: fluids flow from areas of low surface tension to areas of high surface tension without any mechanical pump.

The result is a hypnotic display of swirling liquids that resemble the storms on Jupiter or living planetary atmospheres. It is a rare opportunity for audiences to see a complex fluid dynamic principle usually reserved for textbooks, occurring live and on a massive scale.

The show is designed to function as high-impact "Edutainment" (Educational Entertainment), covering key concepts of the Physics and Chemistry curriculum:

Fluid Dynamics & Turbulence: By trapping white vapor inside the spheres, we make the invisible air currents visible. The audience can observe laminar flow turning into turbulence, illustrating how fluids behave in our atmosphere.
Thin-Film Interference (Optics): The swirling colors on a bubble are not pigments; they are light waves. We demonstrate Constructive and Destructive Interference, explaining why the bubble changes color as its wall thickness changes by nanometers—the same physics behind oil slicks and butterfly wings.
Surface Tension & Elasticity: How far can a liquid membrane stretch before breaking? We push the Van der Waals forces (molecular attraction) to their limit, creating impossible shapes that defy the audience's intuition about liquid behavior.
Polymers & Chemistry: Using a proprietary formula, we introduce the concept of long-chain polymers that strengthen the water's hydrogen bonds, allowing us to build liquid sculptures that last for minutes instead of seconds.

To the untrained eye, a soap bubble is a fleeting toy. To a physicist or mathematician, it is nature's perfect solution to a complex geometric problem.

This performance goes beyond the spectacle to explore the concept of Minimal Surfaces. Why are bubbles always spherical? Because nature is efficient; it always seeks the lowest energy state. A sphere is the only shape that encloses the maximum volume with the minimum surface area.

José Ángel Fernández transforms the stage into a laboratory where these abstract mathematical principles become tangible. The audience doesn't just watch bubbles; they watch the laws of geometry fighting against gravity and air pressure in real-time. It is a visual demonstration of optimization in nature.