Catch a butterfly, and you’ll notice a dust-like residue left behind on your fingers. These are tiny scales from the butterfly’s wing. Under a microscope, those scales overlap like shingles Keep reading
Tag: skin friction
Reducing Drag with Bubbles
Large ships experience a great deal of drag due to friction between their hull and the water. One method shipbuilders are considering to combat this drag is the use of Keep reading
Rio 2016: Swimming
Strange as it seems, elite swimmers are faster when swimming underwater than they are at the surface. So much so, in fact, that they’re restricted to being underwater only 15 Keep reading
Holiday Fluids: Santa’s Aerodynamics
Today we have some holiday-themed fluid dynamics: visualization of flow around Santa’s sleigh! This is a flowing soap film visualization at a low speed (author Nick Moore has some other Keep reading
London 2012: Rowing Physics
In rowing, as in any water sport, drag comes in three varieties: skin friction, form (or pressure) drag, and wave drag. Skin friction comes from the friction between the hull Keep reading
Sharkskin-Style Swimsuits
Fans of swimming will recall the controversies of the now-banned sharkskin-style swimsuits that helped break so many records in the past few years. The suits decrease drag on a swimmer Keep reading
Laminar and Turbulent Flows from a Faucet
Here laminar and turbulent flows, basic concepts in fluid mechanics, are demonstrated in the kitchen sink! While laminar flow is often desirable for decreasing drag due to friction, most practical flows Keep reading
Tour de France Physics: Time Trials
Unlike road stages in which cyclists can draft off one another to reduce drag, in the time trial a cyclist is on a solo race against the clock with nowhere Keep reading