Sometimes fluids are slow-moving enough that it takes timelapse techniques to reveal the flow. Fog is one example, and, as seen above, magnetic silly putty is another. The putty is an unusual fluid in a couple of ways. First, having been impregnated with ferromagnetic nanoparticles, it is sensitive to magnetic fields, making it a sort of ferrofluid. And secondly, being silly putty, it’s a non-Newtonian fluid, meaning that it has a nonlinear response to deformation – a fact that will be familiar to anyone who has tried to knead putty versus striking it. With a strong enough magnet, the putty makes for an impressively tenacious creeping flow. (Video credit: I. Parks; via io9; submitted by Chad W.)
Tag: fluids as art
The Milk Crown
This frequently imitated photograph of a drop of milk splashing was taken by engineer Harold Edgerton in 1934. Edgerton pioneered the application of stroboscopic photography to everyday objects, allowing him to capture images with an effective shutter speed much faster than could be mechanically achieved. The photo captures the crown or coronet of a splash. The momentum of the incoming drop flings a thin sheet of liquid radially outward. The rim of this sheet breaks down into thin ligaments that eject tiny droplets at their tips when surface tension can no longer hold the milk together. (Image credit: H. Edgerton, via The Art Reserve; submitted by Vince G)
5 Years of SDO
NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) is our premiere source for data on the sun. In honor of its five-year anniversary, NASA released this beautiful video compiling some of the highlights among the 2600 terabytes of data the spacecraft has recorded. SDO has captured some truly stunning footage over the years of sunspots, prominences, and eruptions. The latter two are examples of plasma flows and visible magnetohydrodynamics. SDO’s observations are also helping researchers determine what goes on just beneath the sun’s surface, where convection and buoyancy are major forces in the transport of heat generated from fusion in the star’s core. Incidentally, SDO’s launch featured some uncommonly stunning fluid dynamics as well. (Video credit: NASA Goddard)
Underwater Currents
Like the atmosphere, the ocean is constantly in motion, churned by currents that often go unnoticed by humans watching the surface. Filmmaker Julie Gautier and free diver Guillaume Néry demonstrate the power and speed of some of these underwater currents in the film above. The footage was shot in Tiputa Pass, part of an atoll northeast of Tahiti. In it, Néry serves as a human-shaped seed particle in the flow, illustrating just how swift the current is. (Video credit: J. Gautier; via Colossal; submitted by jshoer)
Below a Surfer’s Wave
From below a plunging breaking wave–the classic surfer’s wave–looks like a giant vortex tube. Smaller rib vortices, the rings around the main vortex in the photo above, can form where there are variations along the breaking wave. As the wave rolls on, it stretches the vorticity variations along the wave’s span. When stretched, vortices spin up and intensify; this is a result of conservation of angular momentum. Check out more amazing photos of waves in Ray Collins’ portfolio. (Photo credit: R. Collins; via The Inertia)
“Heavy Metals”
Photographer Alberto Seveso’s “Heavy Metals” series builds on his previous works capturing fluid dynamics. By dropping mixtures of ink, liquids, and metallic powder through different fluids, he creates ethereal, billowing forms that turn the processes of diffusion and turbulent mixing into something one could almost touch. Be sure to check out the rest of the series and his online portfolio for more examples. (Photo credits: A. Seveso; via Colossal; submitted by jshoer and @catnogood)
Splashy Heroines
In his latest work, photographer Jaroslav Wieczorkiewicz used splashing liquids to create fantastical superheroine costumes. The splashes are all real, composited together in post-production from hundreds of individual splashes. He uses cold whole milk as his base liquid, sometimes supplementing with dye or paint for color. There’s also a behind-the-scenes video showing how the pictures are made, but, fair warning, it’s in German with some English subtitles and does contain nudity (link). (Image credits: J. Wieczorkiewicz; via Gizmodo)
Growing Snowflakes
It’s easy to miss the beauty of a snowflake if you don’t take a close look. These tiny crystals form when water freezes onto a dust particle or other nucleation site, and they grow as water vapor freezes on to the nucleus. The structured appearance of a snowflake comes from the bonds formed between water molecules, but the exact type and shape of crystal formed–not all snowflakes are six-sided!–depends on the local temperature and humidity during freezing. This microscopic timelapse video by Vyacheslav Ivanov lets you watch the process in action. (Video credit: V. Ivanov; via io9)
“Marco Polo” Theme
Netflix’s new original series “Marco Polo” has a distinctive and fluidsy title sequence. The artistic team at the Mill created the effect by painting images in water atop dense paper before introducing Japanese sumi-ink. Using high-speed photography, they filmed the diffusion of the ink into the water as it reveals the larger picture. There’s a great behind-the-scenes break down and video over at their blog. (Video credit: The Mill, submitted by jshoer)
Light Paintings
Photographer Stephen Orlando uses programmable LEDs to create light paintings. Here floating LEDs illuminate a track down a waterfall. In flow visualization terms, this is a pathline because it records the trajectory a particular particle followed through the flow. Streamlines, streaklines, and pathlines are all important concepts for interpreting fluid flow through visualization. To see more of Orlando’s light paintings, including some wonderful portraits of canoeing and kayaking, be sure to check out his galleries. (Photo credit: S. Orlando; via Colossal)
