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
Tag: surface tension
Inside Tears of Wine
Pour wine or liquor into a glass, give it swirl, and you can watch as droplets form and dance on the walls. This well-known phenomena, often called “tears” or “legs” in wine, Keep reading
Freezing Bubbles
Scientists have observed distinctive differences in the way soap bubbles freeze depending on their environment. If a bubble is surrounded by room temperature air but placed on a cold surface (top), it Keep reading
Lensing in a Straw
While doing the sort of experiment only a kid or a scientist would pursue – namely, staring down a straw – Dianna noticed that water in a straw creates a Keep reading
“Aurora”
In “Aurora”, artist Rus Khasanov uses fluids to create a short film full of psychedelic color and cosmic visuals. As in a soap bubble, the bright colors – as well as the pure Keep reading
Transporting Droplets
Transporting droplets easily and reliably is important in many microfluidic applications. While this can be done using electric fields, those fields can impact biological characteristics researchers are trying to measure. As an Keep reading
Ink Explosion
Sometimes beautiful flows come from simple combinations. Here the artists of Chemical Bouillon combine ink and hydrocarbons to create lovely explosions of color. Eschewing quick cuts between views, they allow Keep reading
Polygonal Droplets
Spheres are a special shape; they provide the smallest possible surface area necessary to contain a given volume. And since surface tension tries to minimize surface energy by reducing the Keep reading
Engineering Droplets
A jet of falling liquid doesn’t remain a uniform cylinder; instead, it breaks into droplets. In this video, Bill Hammack explores why this is and what engineers have learned to Keep reading
Capillary Action and Sand Castles
Capillary action – or capillarity – is the ability of liquids to flow through narrow constrictions. It results from intermolecular forces between fluids and solids. It’s a combination of surface Keep reading