Experiments are conducted to study the path and shape of single air bubbles (diameter range 0.10- 0.20cm) rising freely in clean water. The experimental results demonstrate that the bubble shape has a bistable state, i. e. the bubble chooses to be in spherical or ellipsoidal shape depending on its generation mechanism. The path of a spherical/ellipsoidal bubble is found to change from a straight path to a zigzag/spiral path via a supercritical/subcritical bifurcation when the Reynolds number of the bubble exceeds a threshold.
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