Vortex rings blown from Mount Etna’s vents drift through the dawn light in this beautiful image from Dario Giannobile. Little is required to create vortex rings — they are a Keep reading
Tag: vortex rings
Etna’s Blowing Rings
Mount Etna has long been known for its smoke rings, but thanks to the opening of a new vent on the volcano’s southeast crater, it’s now making more rings than Keep reading
Supernova Rings
Some 20,000 years ago, a massive star blew off a ring of dust and gas that expanded into the surrounding interstellar medium. Later, in 1987, the star exploded as supernova Keep reading
Vortex Below
When a drop of ethanol lands on a pool of water, surface tension forces draw it into a fast-spreading film. Evenly-spaced plumes form at the edges of the film, then Keep reading
Vortex Rings From a Square Outlet
When a vortex ring forms, it’s often from fluid forced through a round outlet, whether that’s someone’s mouth, a pipe, or a dolphin’s blowhole. But vortex rings can come from Keep reading
Washing By Vortex Ring
Spraying a surface clean with a jet of fluid can be an energy-intensive operation. But a recent experiment shows that pulsed flow — which creates vortex rings — could be Keep reading
Turbulence From Vortex Rings
When vortex rings collide, they reconnect into smaller, rings that eventually break down into chaos. Here, researchers experiment with colliding multiple vortex rings — focusing on an eight-ring collision. When Keep reading
“Reconfiguring It Out”
Leaves flutter and bend in the breeze, changing their shape in response to the flow. Here, researchers investigate this behavior using flexible disks pulled through water. The more flexible the Keep reading
Dolphins Playing With Bubble Rings
Blow a jet of air underwater and you can make a bubble ring. It takes some practice for humans, or you can use a device. In this video, a team Keep reading
Underwater Explosions and Submarines
In the early days of submarines, it did not take physicists and engineers long to discover how destructive underwater explosions can be. In this Slow Mo Guys video, Gav gives Keep reading