Celebrating the physics of all that flows with Nicole Sharp, Ph.D.
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Fire Tornadoes
View this post on Instagram Saw a firewhirl for the first time last night. This sucker was shooting flames 100 ft in the air before it passed right in front of the line, all while dropping hot dirt on our helmets. A post shared by Craig (@lecraix) on Aug 14, 2015 at 6:53pm PDT Fire…
Bubbles and Hurricanes
You may think of soap bubbles as a childhood plaything, but there’s a lot to be learned from them. In her newest video, Dianna of Physics Girl explores some of the fascinating research scientists use soap bubbles for and how you can recreate some of their experiments at home. Scientists have used bubbles to explore…
Turbulent Ink
Turbulence is found throughout our lives, but rarely is it as startlingly beautiful as in this Slow Mo Guys video. Here they show high-speed videos of ink being injected into water. The resulting plumes are turbulent from the very start, with innumerable folds and eddies billowing outward as the plume expands. The large difference in…
Controlling Droplet Bounce
Water repellent, or hydrophobic, surfaces are common in nature, including lotus leaves, many insects, and even some geckos. These hydrophobic surfaces typically gain their water-repelling ability from extremely tiny nanoscale structures in the form of tiny hairs or specially textured surfaces. But, while the nanoscale structures impart superhydrophobicity, researchers have found that larger macroscale structures…
Flow Around a Delta Wing
Colorful streaks of dye wrap like ribbons along the leading edge of a delta wing. At an angle of attack, this triangular wing forms a set of vortices that run along its edge, providing much of the low pressure–and therefore lift–on the upper surface of the wing. In contrast, the red streaks of dye in…
Leaping Mobulas
Mobula rays engage in some pretty incredible aerial acrobatics. This species of ray, second only to manta rays in size, can jump up to 2 meters into the air. Large groups of mobula rays will engage in this behavior, including both males and females, but it remains unclear to scientists exactly what purpose the jumping…
Tides
Most of us think we understand why Earth’s oceans have tides, but it turns out that there are some misconceptions in the common explanation. Yes, it’s true that the moon’s gravity pulls on water in the ocean, but it equally pulls on everything else, too, and we don’t levitate at high tide! In reality, it’s…
Weaponizing Water-Repellency
St. Pauli, a neighborhood in the German city of Hamburg, has demonstrated one of the most unusual applications of superhydrophobicity I’ve ever heard of. St. Pauli is known as a party district, and the residents of the area have grown understandably frustrated with inebriated visitors publicly urinating on their buildings and, yes, playgrounds. When fines failed…
Jovian Dynamics
Our solar system’s largest planet is a mysterious and majestic font of fluid dynamics. Unlike rocky Earth, Jupiter is made entirely of fluids. Beneath its massive gaseous atmosphere lies an ocean of liquid hydrogen. The lack of solid ground to weaken storms may explain some of the longevity of Jupiter’s Great Red Spot, a hurricane…
Convection Cells
This magnified photo shows Rayleigh-Benard convection cells in silicone oil. This buoyancy-driven convection occurs when a fluid is heated from below and cooled above. Inside the cells, fluid rises through the center and sinks along the edges; this motion is made apparent here thanks to aluminum flakes in the oil. The distinctive hexagonal shape of…