What happens when you drop a hydrogel bead on a water droplet? Because of the hydrogel’s viscoelasticity and its hydrophilic nature, the rebounding bead carries the droplet with it. As Keep reading
Tag: viscoelasticity
Kneading Dough
Kneading bread dough is something of an art. The process binds flour, water, salt, and yeast into a network that is both elastic and viscous. It also traps pockets of Keep reading
Making Drops Stick
As you may have noticed when washing vegetables, many plants have superhydrophobic leaves. Water just beads up on their surface and slides right off. This is a useful feature for plants that Keep reading
Making Giant Soap Bubbles
Making soap bubbles is fun, but there’s something about gigantic soap bubbles that brings out the child in everyone. The world’s largest freestanding soap bubble had more than 100 square meters of Keep reading
How the Hagfish Deploys Its Slime
Hagfish – an eel-like species – are known for their prodigious slime production, which helps them escape predators (and, in some cases, seriously muck up highways). Part of the hagfish’s Keep reading
Viscoelasticity and Liquid Armor
One proposed method for improving bulletproof armor is adding a layer of non-Newtonian fluid that can help absorb and dissipate the kinetic energy of impact. Thus far researchers have focused Keep reading
Collective Motion: Worms
Although most animals are more solid than fluid, what happens when you put many of them together can be strikingly fluidic. Above you see the black aquatic worm, Lumbriculus variegatus, Keep reading
“Volumes”
“Volumes” is an experimental art film by Maxim Zhestkov using physics-based particle animation. Waves and unseen forces send billions of color-changing particles aloft in the film. The motions – especially Keep reading
Pressing Non-Newtonian Fluids
For many fluids, the relationship between force and deformation is not simple. The catch-all name for these materials is non-Newtonian fluids. In a recent episode, the Hydraulic Press Channel did Keep reading
When Fire Ants are a Fluid
Substances don’t have to be a liquid or a gas to behave like a fluid. Swarms of fire ants display viscoelastic properties, meaning they can act like both a liquid Keep reading