Liquids don’t typically survive very long as thin films. If you try to make one from water, gravity drains it away immediately. (Not so in space.) To make a liquid Keep reading
Tag: thin film
Viscous Fingers
Viscous fingers form between air and titanium dioxide sol-gel in this photograph. The two fluids are trapped in a thin gap between glass plates – a set-up known as a Keep reading
Melted Polymers
What you see here, despite appearances, is not a soap film. On the contrary, this is a thin vertical film made up of melted polymers. Like a soap film, it Keep reading
Oil Film on Water
This award-winning short film features a thin layer of volatile oil on water. The oil evaporates quickest from shallow pools only microns deep, which appear bluish in the video. Surface Keep reading
Tear Films
The human eye has a thin tear film over its surface to maintain moisture and provide a smooth optical surface. The film consists of multiple layers: a lipid layer at Keep reading
Sochi 2014: Downhill Skiing
Like the athletes who compete on ice, skiers rely on a film of liquid beneath their skis to provide the low friction necessary to glide. The moisture results from the Keep reading
Tears of Wine
Physicist Richard Feynman once famously ended a lecture by describing how the whole universe can be found in a glass of wine. And there is certainly plenty of fluid dynamics Keep reading
Microbubble Necklace
When a drop impacts a pool at very low velocity, a thin layer of air can be trapped between the drop and the pool. When this air film ruptures, a Keep reading
“Surface Tension”
From a series called “Surface Tension,” these ink and water drawings by Marguerite French explore the effects of diffusion, surface tension, and evaporation. The forms left by the thin layer Keep reading
Leidenfrost Dynamics
When a liquid impacts a solid heated well above the liquid’s boiling point, droplets can form, levitating on a thin film of vapor that helps insulate them from the heat Keep reading