Clouds spiral behind the islands of Tenerife and Gran Canaria in this nighttime satellite imagery. Although it’s not entirely unusual to see these von Karman vortex street clouds in the wakes of Keep reading
Tag: vortex shedding
Vibrating in the Flow
Objects can obviously affect flows, but that’s not a one-way street. Flows can also affect objects, even ones as simple a circular cylinder. If you live somewhere with traffic lights Keep reading
The Tacoma Narrows Bridge
One of the most dramatic and famous engineering failures of the twentieth century is also one of the most complicated: the collapse of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge. This early suspension Keep reading
The Swimming of a Dead Fish
When I was a child, my father would take me trout fishing, and I spent hours marveling from the riverbank at the trouts’ ability to, seemingly effortlessly, hold their position Keep reading
Star Wars Aerodynamics
Science fiction is not always known for hewing to scientific fact, so it will probably come as little surprise that Star Wars’ ships have terrible aerodynamics. But it’s nevertheless fun Keep reading
Glorious Vortex Street
Satellite imagery often reveals patterns we might struggle to see from the ground. Here Gaudalupe Island off the western coast of Mexico perturbs the atmosphere into a series of vortices. Keep reading
A Buoyant Rise
Hold a buoyant sphere like a ping pong ball underwater and let it go, and you’ll find that the ball pops up out of the water. Intuitively, you would think Keep reading
Shaking in the Wind
Sitting at a traffic stop on a windy day, you may have noticed the beam holding the traffic lights shaking steadily up and down. This phenomenon is called vortex-induced vibration. Keep reading
Vortex Wake in Quebec
These satellite images show Rupert Bay in northern Quebec. Sediment and tannins have stained the bay’s waters various shades of brown, which helps show the dynamic flows of the area. Keep reading
Happy 50th, Star Trek!
fuckyeahfluiddynamics: Today’s post is largely brought to you by the fact that I have been sick the past four days and my fiance and I have been bingeing on Star Keep reading