Steve Mould demonstrates a neat thermodynamic trick in this video by using ice water to boil hot water. The key to understanding this is recognizing that the boiling point of Keep reading
Tag: pressure
Plant Week: Bladderworts
Carnivorous plants live in nutrient-poor environments, where clever techniques are necessary to keep their prey from getting away. The aquatic bladderwort family nabs their prey through ultra-fast suction. This starts Keep reading
Hydraulics Make Spiders So Creepy
There’s something about the way spiders move that many of us find inherently creepy. And that something, it turns out, is fluid dynamical. Unlike humans and other vertebrates, spiders don’t Keep reading
How Trees Pull Water
Trees are incredible organisms, and the physics behind them baffled scientists until relatively recently. Inside trees, there is a constant flow of water up from the roots, through the xylem Keep reading
Under Pressure, Part 2
Our adventures with pressure continue after the trip to the aquarium. To see just how much pressure we could generate with height, A.J. and I teamed up with the Corvallis Keep reading
Under Pressure
Pressure is a concept that can be unintuitive, but it’s incredibly important in physics and engineering. So I’m excited to debut a collaborative video series that @mostlyenginerd and I are producing Keep reading
The Drinking Bird
At first glance, the drinking bird is a simple desk toy, but the physics and engineering behind the device is clever enough to have challenged many great minds. In this Keep reading
An Octopus’ Handshake
Cephalopods, especially octopuses, are fascinating creatures. At sea level, an octopus can generate an impressive pressure differential of 1 to 2 atmospheres with each of its suckers. That incredible grip Keep reading
Pascal’s Barrel Follow-Up
fuckyeahfluiddynamics: Pascal’s Law tells us that pressure in a fluid depends on the height and density of the fluid. This is something that you’ve experienced firsthand if you’ve ever tried Keep reading
Pascal’s Barrel
Pascal’s Law tells us that pressure in a fluid depends on the height and density of the fluid. This is something that you’ve experienced firsthand if you’ve ever tried to Keep reading