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Five foam-like cells in rust, brown and olive on a pale ground: four touch in a cluster at the lower left, one sits apart at the upper right.

Where the Foam Rests

80 × 100 cmComputed from published scienceArt by Addie ConnerFA-4

How it was made

Anatomy board: Where the Foam Rests. The data on the left, the painting on the right.
The data on the left, the painting on the right. Open full size

How foam divides itself: its walls meet in threes, at nearly equal angles.

When bubbles crowd together, their walls pull as short as they can, so the walls always meet three at a time at 120 degrees, the pattern Plateau found in soap films. Here five foam cells in rust, umber, olive and red show it: a cluster at lower left and one cell alone at upper right, parted by pale seams. It is one of the patterns on La Saladita's patterns page.

Computed from the physics of soap films worked out by Plateau and Taylor, drawn with mathematics, its cells placed by a small learned program.

Sources & verification