What would happen if you tried to blow a soap bubble in below-freezing weather? Would it freeze and fall to the ground? Would you have to hit it with a stone to break it? These questions came into my mind one cold winter day, as I finished my freshly baked apple pie. It was a perfect time to experiment with blowing frozen bubbles.
如果你在零度以下的天气里吹肥皂泡，会发生什么呢？它会冻住，然后掉到地上吗？你是不是得用石头砸才能把它弄破呢？在一个寒冷的冬天，当我吃完刚出炉的苹果派时，这些问题浮现在我的脑海里。那时正是做吹冰冻泡泡实验的好时机。
To blow frozen bubbles, I had to wait until the air outside was very cold, meaning 10 degrees below 0 Fahrenheit or colder. I didn't have the bubble things that come in a bottle, so I used dish-washing soap. I chose a place out of the wind, and blew bubbles the same way I always do. Here's what I learned.
为了吹出冰冻泡泡，我需要等到室外空气非常寒冷，也就是零下 10 华氏度（约零下 23 摄氏度）或更冷的时候。我没有瓶装的泡泡水，于是用了洗洁精。我选择了一个避风的地方，像往常一样吹泡泡。以下是我的发现。
If the temperature is low enough, the skin of the bubble frosts over, becoming cloudy instead of clear. And what about those rainbow swirls that you see in soap bubbles? The rainbow colours stay even when the bubbles frost, but they don't spin any more. The bubbles still float in the air. They don't fall to the ground any faster than they would on a summer day.
如果温度足够低，泡泡的表面会结霜，变得浑浊而不是透明。那么你在肥皂泡中看到的那些彩虹旋涡呢？即便泡泡结霜，彩虹的颜色依然存在，但它们不再旋转。泡泡仍然漂浮在空中。它们落到地面的速度并不比在夏天时更快。
When these bubbles break, they don't turn into tiny drops of soap. They turn into shiny rainbow-coloured pieces and fly slowly to the ground. Sometimes a frozen bubble will roll across the snow without breaking. If it breaks, it may leave a strong bubble skin on the ground.
当这些泡泡破裂时，它们不会变成微小的肥皂液滴，而是会变成闪亮的彩虹色碎片，慢慢飘落到地上。有时，一个冰冻泡泡会在雪地上滚动且不破裂。如果它破裂了，可能会在地面上留下一层坚固的泡泡膜。