For a little Friday fun, consider this microgravity experiment conducted aboard the infamous Vomit Comet: what happens when you combine Diet Coke and Mentos in microgravity? For the record, I think this is the answer. (Via jshoer, who will be flying on the Vomit Comet in 2 weeks – but sadly not with a fluids experiment)
Tag: surface tension
Bubble Art
Bubbles are all about surface tension and minimizing energy. Arrange things just right and you can even make square ones. (via JetForMe)
Soap Bubbles in High-Speed
Everyone has played with soap bubbles. They’re an excellent demonstration of surface tension, even more so when filmed at 5,000 frames per second.
Drinking Coffee in Space
Operating in microgravity disrupts a lot of everyday routines. However, astronauts have learned to take advantage of surface tension to enable them to drink their daily coffee from a cup still.
Dripping into Droplets
The Plateau-Rayleigh instability is one that just about everyone has witnessed. It describes how a liquid jet breaks up into droplets. Notice the waviness in the jet before breakdown. The tiniest curvature in the jet causes an imbalance in the liquid’s pressure due to surface tension. Because the system is unstable, any small changes will become larger, ultimately resulting in the jet breaking into droplets.
Fizziness in Space
Removing gravity has interesting effects on fluids. Here an astronaut aboard the ISS demonstrates what happens when Alka-Seltzer is added to water in microgravity.
Water Balloons in Microgravity
Sometimes you need microgravity in order to observe the neat effects of surface tension on a fluid. Also, I hear it’s a good excuse for popping water balloons on the Vomit Comet. #