Celebrating the physics of all that flows with Nicole Sharp, Ph.D.
- Profile
Levitating Cylinders by Lubrication
Here’s a surprising example of defying gravity: if you coat a vertical treadmill in oil, a cylinder held next to it will levitate! A new paper delves into the mathematics behind this surprising situation, showing that the key to keeping the cylinder aloft is the pressure that forms where the oil layer splits around the…
Pipe Flow and Pressure
Whether you’re a homeowner or an engineer, at some point you’ll have to deal with pipe flow and the challenges inherent to getting water from Point A to Point B. This Practical Engineering video provides a great basic overview of pipe flow and pressure loss, whether you’re looking for an introduction to the topic or…
Kinetic Sculptures by Anthony Howe
These mesmerizing kinetic sculptures built by Anthony Howe are entirely wind-driven. It’s not necessarily apparent in these images, but these sculptures are several meters tall and weigh hundreds of kilograms, but they’re engineered so precisely that the slightest breeze sets them silently spinning. See more of Howe’s art in action on his YouTube channel. (Video…
Challenges of Commercial Supersonic Flight
Years ago as I sat on a plane taxiing at Heathrow, I caught a glimpse of a Concorde out on the tarmac. My classmates couldn’t understand why I was so excited to see that funny looking plane, but even as a high schooler, I was fascinated by the prospect of flying faster than sound. Unfortunately,…
Brace For Impact
What happens in the moment before an object hits the water? That’s the question at the heart of a new study exploring how water deforms before an object’s impact. The researchers dropped circular disks onto a pool of water and, using a new reflection-based technique, measured micron-sized deflections in the water’s surface before impact, as…
Blue Dunes
This false-color image shows a Martian dune field near the northern polar cap. The image itself covers an area 30 kilometers wide, but the dune field stretches over an area the size of Texas. In the photo cooler areas have been rendered in bluer tints, while warm areas are shown in yellow and orange. The…
Tiny Symmetric Swimmers
Microswimmers live in a world dominated by viscosity, and in viscous fluids, symmetric motion provides no propulsion. That’s why bacteria and other tiny organisms use cilia, corkscrew flagella, and other asymmetric means to swim. But a new study decouples the symmetry of a swimmer’s motion from the motion of the fluid, thereby creating a tiny…
“Stream”
Roman De Giuli’s short film “Stream” explores a macro world of color and flow, with a few glimpses behind-the-scenes at how the visuals get made. The artistic canvas here is a glass plate; the materials are oil, ink, and water. As simple as the ingredients are, though, the view is complex and enchanting. It’s amazing…
The Mobile Mud Spring of Niland, CA
What’s part geyser, part mud pot, and all creeping, unstoppable natural disaster? The Niland Geyser, known as the world’s only moving mud spring. Dianna explores this geological mystery in the video above. Although the mud spring has been known for years, it was only in 2016 that it started moving toward railroad tracks and a…