When I post Slow Mo Guys videos, it often comes with a warning not to try this at home. For their latest video, that deserves an extra-special mention: seriously, don’t Keep reading
Month: November 2023
Wrinkling Winds
If you’ve ever sat out on a lake and just watched the water’s surface, you’ve probably noticed how complex and variable it looks. There may be waves that rock your Keep reading
Aerodynamic Leidenfrost Effect
If you place a droplet on a surface much hotter than its boiling point, that droplet will skitter and float almost frictionlessly across the surface on a thin layer of Keep reading
An Octopus’ Handshake
Cephalopods, especially octopuses, are fascinating creatures. At sea level, an octopus can generate an impressive pressure differential of 1 to 2 atmospheres with each of its suckers. That incredible grip Keep reading
Vortex Impact
When a vortex ring impacts a solid wall (or a mirrored vortex ring), it expands and quickly breaks up. The animations above show something a little different: what happens when Keep reading
Breaking Soon
Australian photographer Warren Keelan captures spectacular photos of waves just before and during the moment they break. Fluid dynamics is defined by motion – specifically the motion of substances that Keep reading
Venusian Waves
Despite its proximity, Venus remains largely mysterious, thanks to its cloudy atmosphere and incredible harsh conditions. A recent study using data from the Japanese satellite Akatsuki revealed an enormous bow-shaped wave Keep reading
Creating Clouds
What you see here is the formation of clouds and rain – but it’s not quite what you’re used to seeing outside. This is an experiment using a mixture of Keep reading
Leidenfrost Atop a Fluid
Leidenfrost droplets typically hover on a thin layer of vapor above a surface that is much hotter than the boiling point of the liquid. Such drops move almost frictionlessly across Keep reading
Leapfrogging Vortices
Two vortex rings travelling along the same line can repeatedly leapfrog one another. During my recent visit to the University of Chicago, PhD student Robert Morton of the Irvine Lab Keep reading