Coming home from APS DFD, I looked out the window as we flew east over the last of the Rockies and caught these wave clouds. Air flowing west to east Keep reading
Month: September 2024
Supercooling Water
Supercooling is the process of lowering a fluid’s temperature below its freezing point without the fluid becoming solid. Though this may sound bizarre, it’s an effect you can recreate easily Keep reading
Van Gogh and Turbulence
Turbulence is one of the great unsolved mysteries of classical mechanics. Many physicists and engineers have spent their careers trying to further our understanding of the subject and find the Keep reading
Piazza del Popolo
The lions of the fountain in Rome’s Piazza del Popolo eject a turbulent sheet of water. Random fluctuations in the water sheet cause holes to form. Driven by surface tension, Keep reading
Coalescence in Microgravity
Click through to see. Microgravity is a wonderful playground for fluid dynamics. Here astronaut Reid Wiseman demonstrates the interplay of forces involved in coalescence. When smaller droplets hit with insufficient Keep reading
DFD Reminder
Reminder: APS DFD is starting today. Follow along on Twitter at @fyfluiddynamics and #APSDFD. Later today at 12:30 PT you can follow our science communication workshop and ask questions at Keep reading
APS DFD 2014
It’s that time of year again! Sunday marks the start of the 67th Annual Meeting of the American Physical Society Division of Fluid Dynamics. I’ll be in San Francisco for Keep reading
Pineapple Cavity
Objects falling into a quiescent fluid leave an air-filled cavity in their wake. The cavity collapses quickly due to the pressure of the surrounding fluid; but while it lasts, the Keep reading
Colonial Life
Hydroids are small underwater animals that often live in colonies made up of individual polyps. The colony is interconnected through the gastrovascular system, which is responsible for both digestion and Keep reading
The Rayleigh-Taylor Instability
What’s this? An FYFD video?! Yes, at long last, I’ve begun filming some videos of my own. This first one takes a look at the Rayleigh-Taylor instability and all that Keep reading