Steve Mould opens this video with a classic physics toy that uses materials of different densities as a brainteaser. Two transparent, immiscible liquids fill the container, along with beads of Keep reading
Tag: density
Mixing in a Winter Lake
A frozen winter lake can hide surprisingly complex flows beneath its placid surface. Since water is densest at 4 degrees Celsius — just above the freezing point — mixing two Keep reading
Bubbles in Turbulence
In nature and industry, swarms of bubbles* often encounter turbulence in their surrounding fluid. To study this situation, researchers used numerical simulation to observe bubbles across a range of density, Keep reading
Breaking Ocean Currents
Our global ocean currents move enough water to dwarf the flow of all Earth’s rivers. This worldwide circulation is driven largely by density and the movements of cold, salty water Keep reading
Meeting Without Mixing
When bodies of water meet, they don’t always mix right away. Here we see the confluence of the Back and Hayes Rivers in the Canadian Arctic. The Back River appears Keep reading
Dual Structure of Water
Water is so ubiquitous in our lives that we rarely recognize just how strange it is. For example, when pure liquid water is supercooled well below its freezing temperature, it Keep reading
Convection Without Heat
We typically think of convection in terms of temperature differences, but the real driver is density. In the animations above, cream sitting atop a liqueur is undergoing solutal convection – Keep reading
Convection
Blue paint in alcohol forms an array of polygonal convection cells. We’re accustomed to associating convection with temperature differences; patterns like the one above are seen in hot cooking oil, Keep reading
“Ink in Motion”
In this short film, the Macro Room team plays with the diffusion of ink in water and its interaction with various shapes. Injecting ink with a syringe results in a Keep reading
Accidental Painting
Some paintings of Mexican artist David Alfaro Siqueiros feature patchy, spotted areas of contrasting color formed by what Siqueiros described as “accidental painting”. Many modern artists use this technique as well. Keep reading