Phenomena

Dolphin Bubble Rings

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Dolphins create vortex rings to play with by exhaling through their blowholes.  The sharp impulse of air, combined with the round shape, creates a vortex ring of bubbles. Humans can do this underwater, too, but dolphins aren’t content to lie at the bottom of the pool.  Because smaller vortex rings are more coherent and last longer, they will break the growing vortex so that the vortex fragment rejoins as a smaller vortex ring. They also spin the water nearby to cause wave instabilities in the ring.

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