In our era of remote learning, students don’t always have a chance to do hands-on lab experiments in the usual fashion. But that doesn’t mean they can’t explore important flow Keep reading
Tag: flow visualization
Hedgehogs Atop Waves
Since Michael Faraday, scientists have watched the curious patterns that form in a vibrating liquid. By adding floating particles to such a system, researchers have discovered spiky, hedgehog-like shapes that Keep reading
High Tide
Broad Sound, in eastern Australia, is home to some of the most extreme tidal swings in the world, with more than ten meters difference between high and low tides. The Keep reading
Slow Mo Pulse Jet Engine
Pulse jet engines rely on their shape to maintain combustion without moving parts. The pressure waves that travel through the engine pump fresh oxygen into the combustion chamber and then Keep reading
“Mist and Water”
Years ago, I drove through the Blue Ridge Mountains on a wet and misty New Year’s Day. The fog that clung to the dark trees made the whole world quiet Keep reading
Density Drift
This colorful photo shows three fluids — oil, water, and dish soap — illuminated by the rainbow reflection of a CD. The differing densities of each fluid creates a stratification Keep reading
Curls Past the Canaries
When winds flow past a solitary peak, like an island in the ocean, they’re disrupted into a series of counter-rotating curls. That’s what we see here stretching to the southwest Keep reading
Precipitation
Chemistry and fluid dynamics often go hand-in-hand. Here chemical reactions produce visible precipitates as one chemical drops into the other. The shapes that form are distinctly fluid dynamical, with vortex Keep reading
Slow Motion Speech
Sneezing, coughing, and speaking all produce a spray of droplets capable of spreading COVID-19 and other respiratory illnesses. This Slow Mo Guys video is the latest demonstration in a long Keep reading
Hudson Bay Watercolors
Rivers sweep fresh water and sediment into the Hudson Bay in this satellite image. Dark brown plumes mark the mouths of several coastal rivers as they add to the cyclonic Keep reading