How can the inherent unpredictability of everyday phenomena be demonstrated in a public
experiment? We present experimental data for the lifetime distribution of soap films made from
commercial dish-washing solution (Fairy liquid) and contained in sealed cylinders. Data for a total
of over 2500 films was gathered during a two-month exhibition on the science and art of bubbles
and foams in Dublin’s Science Gallery (http://www.sciencegallery.com/bubble). Visitors to the
gallery were invited to create 10–20 parallel soap films in acrylic tubes which were then sealed off
with cork stoppers. Individual film bursts occurred at random and were uncorrelated. The total
number of remaining films in the tubes was recorded every day. Visitors could monitor the status of
their soap film tube and the daily updated histogram of the lifetime of all films. The histogram of
the bubble lifetimes is well described by a Weibull distribution. This non-exponential distribution
indicates that the failure rate is not constant and increases over time. Unsealed cylinders show
drastically reduced film lifetimes. This public experiment is well suited to illustrate the difference
between the unpredictability of the lifetime of individual films and the existence of a well-defined
lifetime distribution for the ensemble