In this video, artist Afiq Omar mixes ferrofluid with soap, alcohol, milk, and other liquids to create a surrealistic fluidic dance. In addition to using different fluid mixtures, I suspect he accomplishes many effects using several different permanent magnets and electromagnets to vary the magnetic fields around the ferrofluid mixtures. (Video credit: Afiq Omar; via Wired)
Category: Art
Frozen Fluid Illusion
This video creates the illusion of a jet of water frozen in mid-air. The effect is achieved by vibrating the water at the frequency of the speaker, then filming at a frame rate identical to the vibrational frequency. Thus the water pulses at the exact rate that the camera captures images, making the water appear stationary even though it is moving. (submitted by Simon H)
Tornado in a Bubble
In this video, a miniature tornado-like vortex is created inside a soap bubble. Here’s how it works: after the first bubble is formed and the smoke-filled bubble is attached to the outside, he blows into the main bubble, creating a weak angular velocity, before breaking the interface between the two bubbles. As the smoke mixes in the main bubble, note how it is already spinning slowly due to the free vortex he created. Then, when the top of the bubble is popped, surface tension pulls the bubble’s surface inward. Because the bubble radius is decreasing, conservation of angular momentum causes the angular velocity of the fluid inside to increase, pulling the smoke into a tight vortex, much like a spinning ice skater who pulls her arms inward.
Surf’s Up
Diffusion of ink in water + Lego minifigs = an awesome example of fluid mechanics as art. (Photo credit: Alberto Seveso; via io9; thanks to Jennifer for the link!)
Drops Through Drops
The splashes from droplets impacting jets create truly mesmerizing liquid sculptures. Corrie White is one of the masters of this type of high-speed macro photography. Her work captures the instantaneous battles between viscosity, surface tension, and inertia. The fantastic structure seen here through the falling droplets is created by a series of drops timed so that the later ones strike the Worthington jet produced by the initial drop’s impact. (Photo credit: Corrie White)
Colliding Jets
Two jets of sugar syrup collide and interact to form very different patterns. On the left, the two jets have a low flow rate and create a chain-like wake. The jets on the right have a higher flow rate and produce a liquid sheet that breaks down into filaments and droplets. The result is often likened to fish bones. (Photo credit: Rebecca Ing)
Worthington Jet
A drop of sugar syrup falls into a pool of methylated spirits, producing a Worthington jet and several ejected droplets. Although surface tension holds the jet in a smooth shape, the refractive index of the spirits reveals the turbulent mixing within the jet. (Photo credit: Rebecca Ing)
Sound Sculptures
This is another fun and artistic use of non-Newtonian fluids (paint) vibrating on a speaker cone for advertising purposes. The shear-thinning viscous properties of the paint vie with surface tension to create lovely instantaneous sculptures of color. Check out Canon’s Pixma ads for similar artwork.
Ink Sculptures
Dripping ink into water can create fantastic structures as the two fluids mix. In this artwork there are numerous complex mixing phenomena: the eddies and multiple scales of turbulence; the long, thin streams of laminar flow; and the wispy mushrooms and umbrellas of the Rayleigh-Taylor instability. (Photo credit: Mark Mawson; via @thinkgeek)
Faces from Laminar Mixing
