New FYFD video! How much does a rider’s position on the bike affect the drag they experience? To find out I teamed up with folks from the University of Colorado Keep reading
Month: October 2024
Watching Radiation
We’re used to radiation being invisible. With a Geiger counter, it gets turned into audible clicks. What you see above, though, is radiation’s effects made visible in a cloud chamber. Keep reading
Glacial Remains
The high walls of this alpine canyon were cut by flowing glacial ice. This type of amphitheater-shaped valley is known as a cirque. The photo shows one of the Chicago Lakes on Keep reading
Tendrils of Fog
Fog snakes its way from the ocean into the Strait of Juan de Fuca in this animation constructed from satellite imagery. The strait lies between Vancouver Island and the Olympic Keep reading
Cavitating
Cavitation happens when the local pressure in a liquid drops below its vapor pressure. A low-pressure bubble forms, typically very briefly, when this occurs. These bubbles are spherical unless they Keep reading
“Galaxy Gates”
Viewing fluids through a macro lens makes for an incredible playground. In “Galaxy Gates”, Thomas Blanchard and the artists of Oilhack explore a colorful and dynamic landscape of paint, oil, Keep reading
Flow in a Turbine
Fluid flows are complex, complicated, and ever-changing. Researchers use many techniques to visualize parts of a flow, which can help make what’s happening clearer. One technique, shown above, uses oil Keep reading
Venturi Splashes
Diving can generate some remarkable splashes. Here researchers explore the splashes from a wedge-shaped impactor. At high speeds, they found that the splash sheet pushed out by the wedge curls Keep reading
Shadows of Flow
In the latest Veritasium video, Derek demonstrates how to see gas motions that are normally invisible using a schlieren photography set-up. Schlieren techniques have been important in fluid dynamics for Keep reading
The Surge in the Hourglass
When we watch sands running through an hourglass, we think their flow rate is constant. In other words, the same number of grains falls through the neck at the beginning Keep reading