As the tongue-in-cheek saying goes, “It’s a tough job but someone’s got to do it”, and it really does apply to a particular French physicist, who has spent the last 12 years counting how many bubbles there are in a glass of champagne.

In a report in The Journal of Physical Chemistry, physicist Gérard Liger-Belair wrote that he reckons a 100-millilitre pour of champagne will produce about one million bubbles before it goes flat (which takes about four hours). His studies, which took place at the University of Reims Champagne-Ardenne in France, took him 12 years. Although his final count came to one million bubbles per 100ml, it’s a far cry from his original estimate, which was about 15 million; but apparently he has now finally worked out the numbers. I wonder, why was he confused and so far off the mark?

His findings were calculated by dividing the total volume of dissolved carbon dioxide by the average size of a champagne bubble. Liger-Belair said he took a number of factors into account, including the concentration of dissolved gas, the shape and height of the glass, the temperature of the wine and the surrounding air and the direction of the pour.

A complicating fact about the bubbles: they grow larger as they ascend and absorb more carbon dioxide, but become smaller overall as time passes. So for all you trivia enthusiasts, by my reckoning, that’s a cool 7.5 million bubbles per average 75cl bottle of Champagne, which includes the ones wasted on opening, of course.

I assume there would be a different amount for vintage and non-vintage. But that might mean another 12 years of studying. I wonder if they need volunteers.