FIRST-PASSAGE EXPONENT IN 2-DIMENSIONAL SOAP FROTH

We report an experimental measurement of the temporal dependence of th e area A(us) in a two-dimensional soap froth which has not been swept by the passage of soap films up to time t, as the froth coarsens from an initial time to within the scaling regime. We find A(us) stales wit h the mean cell area [A] as A(us) proportional to [A](-theta'), with a first-passage exponent theta' = 1.16 +/- 0.02; and for the average pe rimeter [P]: [P] proportional to [A](psi') and A(us) proportional to [ P](phi') with values of the scaling exponents psi' = 0.49 +/- 0.01 and phi' = 2.38 +/- 0.02. We also find a scaling function in A(us)(t)/A(u s)(t(0)) versus [A(t)]/[A(t(0))].