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Search results for: “art”

  • Paper Marbling

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    Suminagashi, the Japanese art of “floating ink”, is one of many methods historically used for paper marbling. In it, a shallow layer of water or other viscous fluid serve as a medium for drops of ink that diffuse across the fluid surface and are manipulated with straws, brushes, or other tools. Once a design is complete, an absorbent surface like paper or fabric is carefully placed on top to preserve the art.  Among other applications, the technique has historically been used for calligraphy and book bindings.

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    Atmospheric Dynamics in the Lab

    One way to explore some of the large-scale atmospheric dynamics we observe here on earth is through table-top demonstrations such as this one. Here a platform with a water tank is rotating at a constant velocity. The camera rotates with the tank; this is why the hand in the video seems to spin. At the center of the tank, ice in a can cools the water, while the warmer air along the periphery provides heating. The green dye marks initially cooler fluid while the red dye marks the warmer fluid from the outside of the tank. The dense cooler fluid sinks and moves outward while warmer water moves in to replace it. This creates radial circulation; the thermal gradients and rotation cause the eddies and jets seen from this top view, in much the same way that they form in the mid-latitudes of earth’s atmosphere.  (Video credit: Marshall Lab, MIT)

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    Fire Tornado

    An artificial fire tornado makes for fascinating viewing. The box fans are positioned around a central firepit such that they impart the angular velocity needed to create a vortex. I’ve actually seen an even bigger live demonstration than this one at a fluid dynamics conference.  Do not try this yourself. Fire tornadoes occur in nature, too: take a look at how they form. (submitted by acervant)

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    Sea Surface Temperatures

    This video shows sea surface temperature results and their seasonal variation from a numerical simulation modeling circulation in the atmosphere and oceans. Modeling such enormous problems requires the development of reasonable models of the turbulent physics, clever algorithms to quickly progress the solutions, relatively low-fidelity (a single grid node may cover tens of kilometers), and enormous computing power. (Video credit: NOAA; via Gizmodo)

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    Canyon Fire Timelapse

    Wildfires continue to burn across Colorado and other parts of the United States. This timelapse video shows 5 days worth of the Waldo Canyon fire. Smoke billows through the night and day, with diurnal temperature changes and winds affecting whether the turbulent plumes rise high or hover on the horizon. It is hard to describe the eeriness of watching a fire burn uncontrollably on the horizon; we hope those fighting the fires stay safe and that those affected by the fires are able to return and recover soon. (Video credit: Steve Moraco; submitted by Chris P)

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    Traffic Fluid Dynamics

    What does traffic have to do with fluid dynamics? Rather a lot, actually! Many parallels exist between traffic and compressible fluid flow. One such example, the concept of a shock wave, is demonstrated in the video above. As the traffic jam develops, the cars experience sudden changes in their velocity and relative distance (in a fluid, this would be density). This change travels backward through the traffic in the form of a shockwave, just the same as discontinuous changes in a fluid.

    Road construction provides another common example of compressible-flow-like behavior in cars.  For an incompressible fluid like water, reducing the area of a pipe would increase the velocity, but just the opposite happens when a road is reduced from two lanes to one.  Traffic slows down and clumps together. When the road opens back up from one lane to two, suddenly the speed and the distance between cars increases. This is exactly what happens in a rocket nozzle–it’s the expanding bell-like shape that causes air to accelerate supersonically. (Video credit: New Scientist)

  • Volcanic Vortices

    Volcanic Vortices

    The volcanoes of the South Sandwich Islands, located in the South Atlantic, have a notable effect on cloud formation in this satellite photo. Visokoi Island, on the right, sheds a wake of large vortices that distort the cloud layer above it.  On the left, Zavodovski Island’s volcano does the same, with the added effect of low-level volcanic emissions, which include aerosols. These tiny particles provide a nucleus around which water droplets form, causing an marked increase in cloud formation visible in the bright tail streaming off the island. (Photo credit: NASA, via Earth Observatory)

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    Schlieren Montage

    Dr. Gary Settles, a world-reknown expert in schlieren photography, shows here a montage of some of his lab’s results, including shockwaves from musical instruments, dogs sniffing, guns firing (both sub- and supersonic), and even snapping a wet towel going supersonic. As Settles jokes, schlieren is all mirrors and hot air. Mirrors are used to shine collimated light on the object to be imaged; then the light focused with a lens. By placing a knife-edge at the focal point, part of the light is blocked and the density variations in the final image become visible, thanks to their differing refractive indices. (Video credit: G. Settles et al.)

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    “Cascades”

    Ryan Teague’s “Cascades” music video features the enchanting process of ice growth. A chamber full of supercooled water vapor subject to a strong electric field is stimulated to grow crystals by providing a needle as the initial nucleation site. Because the vapor is supercooled, it will freeze upon contact with the nucleation site; the electric field keeps the water molecules aligned so that the crystal patterns formed are more even.  The tree-like pattern seen here is called dendritic crystal growth; branches form at faults in the crystalline pattern. (Video credit: Ryan Teague, Village Green, Words are Pictures; via Gizmodo)

  • Viscous Dripping

    Viscous Dripping

    Artist Skye Kelly’s “Creep (strain)” sculpture shown above is made from toffee. The viscous fluid deforms under the force of gravity, resulting in elongated drips and slow jets that buckle and coil upon reaching the floor. (Photo credits: Skye Kelly; via freshphotons)

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