“Radiolarians” is a short film by artist Roman De Giuli using ink, alcohol, and oil. Much of the fluid motion involves break-up into droplets. The effects appear to rely heavily Keep reading
Tag: marangoni effect
“Liquid Skies”
“Liquid Skies” by Roman De Giuli is full of colorful but nebulous fluid imagery. The visuals consist of liquids like paint, ink, and alcohol filmed in macro atop paper. You Keep reading
Why Food Sticks to Nonstick Pans
Whether you’re cooking with ceramic, Teflon, or a well-seasoned cast iron pan, it seems like food always wants to stick. It’s not your imagination: it’s fluid dynamics. As the thin Keep reading
“Oooh !! My Delicious Coffee”
I’m not a coffee person, but Thomas Blanchard’s “Oooh !! My Delicious Coffee” manages to capture my favorite part of the beverage – watching cream and coffee mix. From feathery Keep reading
The Vortex Beneath a Drop
While we’re most used to seeing levitating Leidenfrost droplets on a solid surface, such drops can also form above a liquid bath. In fact, the smoothness of the bath’s surface, Keep reading
Marangoni Bursting
Placing a mixture of alcohol and water atop a pool of oil creates a stunning effect that pulls droplets apart. The action is driven by the Marangoni effect, where variations Keep reading
Growing Metal Fingers
Eutectic gallium-indium alloy is a room-temperature liquid metal with an extremely high surface tension. Normally, that high surface tension would keep it from spreading easily. But once the metal oxidizes, Keep reading
The Birth of a Liquor
A water droplet immersed in a mixture of anise oil and ethanol displays some pretty complicated dynamics. Its behavior is driven, in part, by the variable miscibility of the three Keep reading
Surface Jets in Coalescing Droplets
What goes on when droplets merge is tough to observe, even with a high-speed camera. There are many factors at play: any momentum in the droplets, surface tension, gravity, and Keep reading
Whiskey Stains
Complex fluids leave behind fascinating stains after they evaporate. We’ve seen previously how coffee forms rings and whisky forms more complicated stains as surface tension changes during evaporation drive particles throughout the droplet. Now Keep reading