Evaporate a droplet full of silica nanoparticles, and you’ll get beautiful, flower-like films. As the water evaporates, dry nanoparticles build up in a solid deposit. The evaporation creates a pressure Keep reading
Tag: evaporation
Drying Out
Look closely at old paintings, and you’ll notice arrays of tiny, straight cracks that form as the paint dried. This sort of pattern formation during drying is not unusual. Here Keep reading
Whiskey Stains
Complex fluids leave behind fascinating stains after they evaporate. We’ve seen previously how coffee forms rings and whisky forms more complicated stains as surface tension changes during evaporation drive particles throughout the droplet. Now Keep reading
Streaming Fire
I’m just going to start this one with a blanket statement: DO NOT TRY THIS. Instead, enjoy the fact that the Internet enables us to enjoy the sight of burning gasoline in Keep reading
Inside Tears of Wine
Pour wine or liquor into a glass, give it swirl, and you can watch as droplets form and dance on the walls. This well-known phenomena, often called “tears” or “legs” in wine, Keep reading
The Leidenfrost Crack
In 1756, Leidenfrost reported on the peculiar behaviors of droplets on surface much hotter than the liquid’s boiling point. Such droplets were highly mobile, surfing on a thin layer of Keep reading
Inside an Evaporating Drop
The evaporation of a simple droplet holds far more complexity than one would expect. If you look closely at the edge of the drop, there’s a tiny, beautiful display at Keep reading
Freezing Stains
When they evaporate, drops of liquids like coffee and red wine leave behind stains with a darker ring along the edges, thanks to capillary action and surface tension pulling particles 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
Keeping Bubbles Around
Bubbles don’t stick around in pure water. Surfactants are needed to stabilize the thin liquid film for longer than the blink of an eye. But that’s not necessarily the case Keep reading