The wingtip vortices in the wake of a commercial airliner distort the clouds as the plane descends. Wingtip vortices form as a result of high pressure air from the underside Keep reading
Month: January 2025
Gelatin
Gelatins are actually colloidal gels, or a liquid dispersed inside a solid, cross-linked network. The crosslinks give the gelatin structure, but much of its dynamic behavior remains reminiscent of fluid Keep reading
Rayleigh-Taylor Art
The Rayleigh-Taylor instability occurs when a denser fluid lies atop a lighter fluid (relative to the gravitational field). The interface between the fluids deforms and the two fluids form finger-like Keep reading
Stereo Liquid Sculpture
This stereo 3D photo shows the Worthington jet ejected when a droplet impacts a pool. The flat crowning drop is formed from an ejected droplet colliding with a falling droplet.
Supersonic Bullet
[original media no longer available] This video shows a CFD simulation of a bullet passing through a parallel channel at Mach 2. The simulation captures 3 milliseconds of real-time and Keep reading
Island Vortex Street
The von Karman vortex street is a series of vortices shed periodically in the wake of a bluff body. Although they are commonly observed in the lab behind cylinders, they Keep reading
Cloud Ocean
Time-lapse photography is great for capturing the fluid motion of clouds over the course of a day.
Combustion
Fluid dynamics are vital to combustion. Like here, many practical flames–such as those responsible for internal combustion in automobiles, jet engines, and rockets–are turbulent. The turbulence aids mixing of the Keep reading
Giant Water Balloon Physics
Playing with a giant water balloon and high-speed cameras is like a giant experiment in surface tension, right up until the tensile strength of the balloon comes into play. The Keep reading
DIY Non-Newtonian Fluids
[original media no longer available] We’ve featured the non-Newtonian fluid oobleck here before, but it bears repeating as a fun and easy exercise for anyone to do at home or Keep reading