Celebrating the physics of all that flows with Nicole Sharp, Ph.D.
- Profile
Psychedelic Soap Film
Macro images of a soap film burst with color. Because the color comes from interference between light waves bouncing off the inner and outer surfaces of the soap film, the colors we see correspond directly to the thickness of the soap film. So the patterns we see reflect actual flows and variations inside the soap…
Contrails From 4 Engines
The wingtip vortices of aircraft provide a veritable cornucopia of gorgeous imagery. There’s something inherently fascinating about these vortices that stretch behind moving aircraft. But four-engine aircraft add an extra twist to the imagery, as seen here. With four engines, these aircraft produce four separate contrails, each of which acts like a streakline for the…
Preventing Flooding
The Dutch have been exceptional water engineers for centuries, a necessity in a country where more than a quarter of its territory lies below sea level. After a devastating flood in the early 1950s, the country embarked on a decades’ long endeavor to build the massive Delta Works that now protect a large portion of…
The Wanderings of Micro-Scallops
In the 19th century, botanist Robert Brown observed pollen granules beneath his microscope jittering randomly. Einstein showed that this motion resulted from the impacts of much-smaller atoms against the particles. For small enough objects, the random walk of Brownian motion dominates their dynamics. A new study explores how flexible objects move at this Brownian scale.…
The Magic* Cork
*Spoiler alert: it’s not magic. It’s science! Just what makes this dropped cork float beneath the surface? Just like a normal cork, it’s buoyancy! But this seemingly straightforward video is hiding a few key elements. Firstly, the cork has been modified; it has a metal sphere inside it so that its effective density is higher…
As the Fog Rolls In
Although we talk about fog rolling in, it’s rare for us to have a perspective where we can truly appreciate that flow. But this photograph from Tanmay Sapkal provides just that for the low summer fogs sweeping over Marin, CA. When hot summer temperatures make inland air rise, cold, moist air from the ocean sweeps…
Why Watering Globes Are Hard to Fill
If you’re leaving home for a few days and want to keep your houseplants happy, you may have tried using a watering globe – those glass bulbs with long stems that slowly release water for your plant. And if you have used one, you’ve probably noticed what a pain it can be to fill. Pour…
Oil Drops and Filter Feeders
Natural oils provide critical nutrients to filter feeders like zooplankton and barnacles. These creatures capture oil droplets on bristle-like appendages such as cilia and setae. But this droplet-catching turns into a disadvantage during petroleum spills, when capturing and ingesting oil can be lethal. A recent study looks at the fluid dynamics of oil droplet capture…
Hot Ice, Buoyancy Tricks, and More DIY Fun
Here’s a smorgasbord of DIY experiments from Dianna at Physics Girl. Some are fluidsy, some aren’t, but all of them give you a chance to stretch your science muscles at home. Personally, I think she saved the best for last with her laser-acoustics demo! (Video credit: Physics Girl)
Testing Granular Gas Theory
When excited, a group of particles can behave much like a gas. These granular gases exhibit many similarities to molecular gases but contain one vital difference: without a constant input of energy, granular gases lose kinetic energy to collisions. Over the years, scientists have developed a special theory to describe the behaviors of granular gases,…