Seals and sea lions often hunt fish in waters too dark or turbid to rely on eyesight. Instead, they follow their whiskers, using the turbulence generated by a fish’s wake. Keep reading
Tag: wakes
Walking in the Wake
Flow visualization is an important tool in fluid dynamics, and scientists have many ways to capture and visualize flow information. But our methods are not the only — or even Keep reading
Vortex Arms
A fixed cylinder will shed alternating vortices in its wake, but one allowed to oscillate forward and backward in the flow instead sheds simultaneous vortices. The shape of the wake Keep reading
An Oasis Among Dunes
The Saudi Arabian oasis of Jubbah sits in the bed of an ancient lake. It’s protected from the westerly winds that sculpt the surrounding dunes by the wind shadow of Keep reading
Sensing Obstacles Through Flow
Mosquitoes, bats, and even eels use non-visual means to sense their environments. For mosquitoes, part of their obstacle avoidance comes from the exquisite sensitivity of their antennae, which are able Keep reading
Dunes Avoid Collisions
The speed at which a dune migrates depends on its size; smaller dunes move faster than larger ones. That speed differential implies that small dunes should frequently collide into and Keep reading
The Microscopic Ocean
When you’re the size of plankton, water may as well be molasses. Viscosity rules at these scales, and swimming plankton leave distinctive wakes that are slow to dissipate. Fish that feed on plankton use Keep reading