Civil engineers face a constant challenge trying to protect their structures from water — both above and below the ground. Subsurface water can build up enough pressure to lift and Keep reading
Tag: drainage
Draining By Vortex
Unstop your bathtub and the draining water will form a tiny tornado-shaped vortex over the outlet. Four centuries ago Torricelli developed a mathematical equation to describe how long it would Keep reading
Reintroducing Beavers
Beavers are impressive ecological engineers and a keystone species for wetland environments. But in the UK, it’s been nearly 400 years since beavers were regularly found in the wild. In Keep reading
Soap Film Evolution
The beautiful colors of a soap film reflect its variations in thickness. As a film drains and evaporates, it turns to shades of gray and black as it gets thinner. Keep reading
Soapy Rainbows
The swirling psychedelic colors of a soap bubble come from the interference of light rays bouncing off the inner and outer surfaces of the film. As a result, the colors Keep reading
Melted Polymers
What you see here, despite appearances, is not a soap film. On the contrary, this is a thin vertical film made up of melted polymers. Like a soap film, it Keep reading