I’m excited to announce that I will be attending the American Physical Society Division of Fluid Dynamics meeting in San Francisco next month. This year I will be co-teaching a Keep reading
Month: December 2023
Momentary Crown
When a drop falls on a liquid film, its impact drives a thin liquid sheet called the ejecta upward and outward from the point of impact. Within milliseconds, tiny perturbations Keep reading
Kelvin-Helmholtz Clouds
When differing layers of fluid move past one another, friction between them causes shear. This shear quickly transforms a simple flat interface between fluid layers into a wavy unstable boundary Keep reading
“Courants et Couleurs”
Although flow visualization is a scientific technique, there is very much an art to it. Flow structures are, by their nature, ephemeral. To capture them, one must design an experiment that introduces dye Keep reading
The Kaye Effect
Those who have poured viscous liquids like syrup or honey are familiar with how they stack up in a rope-like coil, as shown in the top row of images above. Keep reading
Kelvin’s Thunderstorm
In this video, Derek Muller explains how an experiment known as Lord Kelvin’s thunderstorm generates electricity from falling water. The set-up relies on a positive feedback loop that creates a separation Keep reading
Inside the Strait of Gibraltar
When a fluid is stratified into layers, it’s possible to have waves generated and transmitted along the interface between layers. Because these waves remain inside the bulk fluid, they are Keep reading
Levitating Droplets with Motion
There are many ways to levitate a droplet – heating, vibration, and acoustic levitation all come to mind – but this video demonstrates a simpler method: a moving wall. Depositing Keep reading
The Marangoni Effect
Differences in surface tension can create Marangoni flow along an interface. Imagine a shallow bowl filled with a liquid. In the middle of the fluid, every molecule is surrounded on Keep reading
Plume Stratification
Clean-up of accidents like the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill can be complicated by what goes on beneath the ocean surface. Variations in temperature and salinity in seawater create stratification, stacked Keep reading