2020 was certainly a strange year, and I confess that I mostly want to congratulate all of us for making it through and then look forward to a better, happier, Keep reading
Tag: surface tension
Wrinkles on Bubble Collapse
A viscous bubble wrinkles when it collapses, and scientists long assumed this behavior was caused by gravity. But a new experiment shows that the buckling is, instead, driven by surface Keep reading
Spinning Bubbles
Fluid dynamics is largely about figuring out the relationship between forces. For a soap bubble sitting still, that’s primarily the effect of gravity, which makes the fluid in the soap film drain downward, and Keep reading
Freezing Splats
When a drop hits a surface colder than its freezing point, there’s a competition between retraction and solidification that determines the final shape of the splat. For many materials, like Keep reading
Simulating Better Breaking Waves
In the ocean, breaking waves trap air into bubbles that then cluster into foam, but conventional simulations don’t capture this foaminess. For bubbles to cluster into foam, there has to Keep reading
Slow Mo Espresso
High-speed photography gives us an alternate glimpse of reality. Here it provides an all-new perspective on making espresso. Surface tension plays a starring role, first in pulling together the film Keep reading
Leaping Hoops
Some water-walking insects are able to leap off a watery interface. One way to model these creatures is with elastic hoops, which can also propel themselves off the water’s surface. Keep reading
Ejecting Water from a Smartwatch
Making electronics water-resistant can be a challenge, but as this Slow Mo Guys video demonstrates, engineers have some clever ways to deal with unwanted liquids. The Apple Watch, for example, 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
“As Above”
In Roman Hill’s “As Above,” we see expansive celestial landscapes: nebulae, the corona of a star, and expanding interstellar dust clouds. Except, in reality, we are watching fluids undergoing a Keep reading