In 452, Roman refugees established what became the city of Venice across a series of low-lying marshy islands in a lagoon. With no solid ground available, Venice has needed clever Keep reading
Tag: history
Feynman’s Sprinkler Solved
In graduate school, my advisor introduced us to a particularly vexing fluid dynamical thought experiment known as the Feynman sprinkler. After observing an S-shaped sprinkler that rotated when water shot Keep reading
Remembering Rivers Past
Our landscapes have changed dramatically over the last 200 years of urban development, but traces of the land’s past still remain. Many streams and rivers that once ran on the Keep reading
The Best of FYFD 2023
A fresh year means a look back at what was popular last year on FYFD. Usually, I give a numeric list of the top 10 posts, but this year the Keep reading
Eroding the Sphinx
One theory suggests that the Great Sphinx of Giza formed — in part — naturally as a result of erosion, and ancient Egyptians added features to the bedrock formation. To Keep reading
Deciphering Krakatau
In 1883, the eruption of Krakatau (also called Krakatoa) shook the world, sending shock waves and tsunamis ricocheting across the globe. Some of the smaller waves hit shorelines in the Keep reading
Dead Water
In the days before motorized propulsion, sailors would sometimes find themselves slowed nearly to a stop by what they called ‘dead water‘. As discovered in laboratory experiments over a century Keep reading
The Boston Molasses Flood
Today marks the 100th anniversary of the Boston Molasses Flood, and to commemorate this bizarre disaster, I’ve made a video about the key findings from my research with colleagues at Keep reading
The Great Smog of London
Our atmosphere is active and ever-changing – except when it isn’t. Some areas, including many cities, are prone to what’s known as a temperature inversion, where a layer of cooler Keep reading
Reader Question: Rudders
Reader le-mec writes: My question involves “fenestrated rudders”, a Chinese invention that involved cutting diamond-shaped holes in the rudders of ancient Chinese sailing ships (known as Junks). According to several Keep reading