When I was a child, I was fascinated by the raindrops that shimmied along the windshield of our car. Some would slide up the glass. Some would run down. And Keep reading
Tag: gravity
What Drives Droplets
There’s been a lot of interest recently in what goes on inside droplets made up of more than one fluid as they evaporate. This can be entertaining with liquids like Keep reading
Using Sound to Print
Inkjet printing and other methods for directing and depositing tiny droplets rely on the force of gravity to overcome the internal forces that hold a liquid together. But that requires Keep reading
Flames in Freefall
Gravity is such an omnipresent force in our lives that we frequently forget how strongly it affects our daily experiences and how differently nature behaves without it. A wonderful example Keep reading
Coarsening in a Soap Film
Flow in a soap film is driven by gravity’s efforts to thin the film and surface tension’s attempts to stabilize variations in thickness. Because evaporation guarantees that the soap film Keep reading
Fire in Microgravity
In the movie “Gravity” Sandra Bullock’s character battles a fire aboard the International Space Station. Combustion is a huge concern in space habitats. Microgravity fires are challenging to detect and Keep reading
Hanging Liquids
A horizontal filament of viscous liquid hanging between two plates stretches under gravity. The photo above is a composite showing the stretching of a single thread over several time steps. Keep reading
How Cats Drink
While humans use suction and dogs scoop water using their tongues*, cats use a dainty fluid mechanism to drink. Researchers used high-speed video to find that cats drink by touching Keep reading