As a teenager, I climbed Mount Kilimanjaro. The final ascent began around midnight, and we climbed through the dark, through sunrise, and into the early morning. I remember pausing at Keep reading
Tag: flow visualization
Listening to the Sizzle
The sizzle of frying food is familiar to many a cook, and that sound actually conveys a surprising amount of information. In this study, researchers suspended water droplets in hot Keep reading
“Life and Chaos”
In “Life and Chaos,” artists Roman Hill and Paul Mignot shot fluid flows live in a 1 cm x 1 cm square, then projected those images across 3,300 square meters. Keep reading
Meet BILLY
Many wings in nature are not rigid. Instead they flex and curve with the flow. Here researchers imitate that phenomenon with BILLY (Bio-Inspired Lightweight and Limber wing prototYpe). Using an evolutionary-style algorithm, Keep reading
Inside a Champagne Pop
When the cork pops on a bottle of champagne, the physics is akin to that of a missile launch in more ways than one. In this study, researchers used computational Keep reading
Spinning Off-Axis
To make a vortex in the laboratory, researchers typically set a tank on a rotating platform and allow the water to drain out a hole in the center of the Keep reading
How Wells and Aquifers Work
When rain falls, some of that water turns into run-off in storm systems but much of it seeps into the ground. What happens to that water? In most places, it Keep reading
When Seeing a Flow Changes It
Adding dye to a flow is a common technique for visualization. After all, many flows in fluids like air and water are invisible to our bare eyes. But for some Keep reading
“Velocity”
In this short film by Vadim Sherbakov, macro shots of glittery ink and pigments look like astronomical vistas. The title of the film, “Velocity,” is spot on; every shot is Keep reading
Moving By (Intestinal) Wave
A word of warning: today’s post includes visuals of digestion taking place in (non-human) embryonic intestines. Our bodies rely on waves driven by muscle contractions to move both fluids and Keep reading