Heavy rains followed by a sudden freeze can produce icy puddles like this one. Because the pool was shallow to begin with, it likely froze rapidly. As the temperature continued Keep reading
Category: Phenomena
A Primer on Blood Pressure
Some of the most important fluid dynamics goes on every moment inside our bodies. After only a few weeks of gestation, the human heart begins its lifelong task of pumping Keep reading
A Colorful Portrait of Flow
This gorgeous, natural-color image shows Lake Balkhash in southeastern Kazakhstan. In early March, the ice on the lake was beginning to break up, revealing glimpses of swirling sediment below the Keep reading
Self-Started Siphoning
Here’s a fun activity you can do while you #StayHome: build a self-starting siphon. Michael from VSauce explains how in this video. Moving fluids from one location to another is Keep reading
Hummingbird Flight in Slow Motion
Hummingbirds are impressive, acrobatic flyers. Their figure-8 wing stroke pattern produces about 70% of their lift on the downstroke, and the remainder during the backward upstroke. But their tails and Keep reading
Recession at Taku Glacier
A glacier’s snowline marks the location where the amount of summer melting and accumulated snowmass are equal. If, over the course of a season, a glacier experiences more snowfall than melting, its Keep reading
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 Keep reading
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 Keep reading
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 Keep reading
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 Keep reading