On extremely hot surfaces, droplets will skitter on a layer of their own vapor, thanks to the Leidenfrost effect. This keeps the liquid insulated from contact with the hot surface. But Keep reading
Tag: granular material
Shearing Grains
Granular materials, like beads and sand, demonstrate both solid and fluid-like behaviors, which makes them difficult to study. Traditionally, one method for studying how fluids respond to deformation places the Keep reading
Crowds as a Fluid
At a low density, crowds of people can behave like a fluid, which has led to numerous hydrodynamically-based crowd models. At higher densities, though, crowds are more like a soft solid, Keep reading
What Controls an Avalanche?
In an avalanche, grains spontaneously flow when a slope reaches a critical angle, and they continue flowing until they settle at a new, lower angle. Scientists have long debated why this Keep reading
Capillary Action and Sand Castles
Capillary action – or capillarity – is the ability of liquids to flow through narrow constrictions. It results from intermolecular forces between fluids and solids. It’s a combination of surface Keep reading
Giving Chocolate that Smooth Finish
Anyone who’s tried to make chocolate confections at home can tell you that achieving that perfect smooth consistency isn’t easy. It was only after Rodolphe Lindt invented the process of Keep reading
Granular Instabilities
Granular mixtures show surprising similarities to fluids, even though their underlying physics differ. The latest example of this is a Rayleigh-Taylor-like instability that occurs when heavy particles sit atop lighter Keep reading
360 Splashes
Beautiful as a splash is, why only enjoy it from a single angle? In this video, the artists behind Macro Room offer a 360-degree perspective on various splashes and fluid Keep reading
Rays in Craters
On bodies around the solar system, there are craters marking billions of years’ worth of impacts. Many of these craters have rays–distinctive lines radiating out from the point of impact. Keep reading
Digging Sandpits
Antlion larvae dig sandpits to catch their prey, and, according to a new study, they rely on the physics of granular materials to do so. The antlion digs in a Keep reading