How do Bubbles Freeze?

Freezing bubbles are not only beautiful, but also demonstrate incredibly complex physics. Here, Professor Jonathan Boreyko explains how bubbles freeze with examples of slow motion videos filmed in his laboratory at Virginia Tech.

This video is part of a collaboration between FYFD and the Journal of Fluid Mechanics featuring a series of interviews with researchers from the APS DFD 2017 conference.

Sponsored by FYFD, the Journal of Fluid Mechanics, and the UK Fluids Network. Produced by Tom Crawford and Nicole Sharp with assistance from A.J. Fillo.

June 13, 2019 0

How Strong is an Avalanche?

Measuring the forces present in an avalanche using light. Amalia Thomas from the University of Cambridge explains how to measure the forces between colliding particles in an avalanche based on their photo-elastic response and refractive index.

This video is part of a collaboration between FYFD and the Journal of Fluid Mechanics featuring a series of interviews with researchers from the APS DFD 2017 conference.

Sponsored by FYFD, the Journal of Fluid Mechanics, and the UK Fluids Network. Produced by Tom Crawford and Nicole Sharp with assistance from A.J. Fillo.

May 30, 2019 0

Brazil Nut Effect in Avalanches and Cereal

The brazil nut effect describes the movement of large particles to the top of a container after shaking. The same effect also occurs in avalanches where large blocks of ice and rocks are seen on the surface, and in a box of cereal where the large pieces migrate to the top and the smaller dusty particles remain at the bottom. In this video, Nathalie Vriend and Jonny Tsang from the University of Cambridge explain how the granular fingering instability causes granular convection and particle segregation, with examples of experiments and numerical simulations from their research.

This video is part of a collaboration between FYFD and the Journal of Fluid Mechanics featuring a series of interviews with researchers from the APS DFD 2017 conference. Sponsored by FYFD, the Journal of Fluid Mechanics, and the UK Fluids Network. Produced by Tom Crawford and Nicole Sharp with assistance from A.J. Fillo.

May 22, 2019 0

Martin Fourcade: the Science behind the Olympic Biathlon Skiing Champion

Five-time Olympic Biathlon Skiing Champion Martin Fourcade enlisted the help of two scientists – Caroline Cohen and Christophe Clanet at Ecole Polytechnique – to help to decide the best type of wax to use on his skis in the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics. Here’s how they did it…

Sponsored by FYFD, the Journal of Fluid Mechanics, and the UK Fluids Network. Produced by Tom Crawford and Nicole Sharp with assistance from A.J. Fillo.

May 8, 2019 0

Nailing Science: The Maths of Rivers

Creating scientifically accurate nail art whilst discussing my research in fluid dynamics with Dr Becky Smethurst and Dr Michaela Livingston-Banks at the University of Oxford.

We recorded 1h30mins of footage, so this is the heavily edited version of our chat ranging from the fluid dynamics equations needed to describe the flow of water in a river, the Coriolis effect, the experimental set up replicating this, and how these experiments can help with the clean up of pollution.

April 30, 2019 0

Oxplore Live: What’s your biggest BIG question?

A very special Oxplore livestream as I’m joined by 3 Oxford undergraduates to discuss the biggest of BIG questions in celebration of Oxplore turning 50. Featuring gems such as ‘can we develop artificial intelligence without it controlling us?’, ‘what would happen if al of humanity were immortal?’ and ‘what was the best era or time period for humans to live in?’ Watch the video below and join in the discussion @letsoxplore.

April 24, 2019

Maths at: The Martian

I recently joined the Maths at team to dissect the maths featured in the movie ‘The Martian’. We had a lot of fun and even learned a few things including:

Everyone’s links to Countdown;
Ancient Greek Mathematicians;
How to tell the difference between Jeff Daniels and Jeff Bridges.

So, put your feet up, get comfortable, get naked (if you so wish) and listen to the full episode here.

You can try the Martian’s maths problems for yourself here and find out more about NASA’s mission to Mars with the Opportunity Rover by watching the video below.

April 23, 2019 0

How to Make Water Music – Slap, Plunge, Plow!

Female musicians from the northern islands of Vanuatu use the water surface as an instrument to create a variety of unique sounds – slap, plunge, plow – which they accompany with singing. Each interaction with the water surface produces a different acoustic response corresponding to the air-water-hand interaction, each of which has been studied by Randy Hurd and Tadd Truscott of Utah State University.

Every year the Gallery of Fluid Motion video contest features the newest and most beautiful research in fluid dynamics. Watch all of the Gallery of Fluid Motion videos here: http://gfm.aps.org

This video is part of a collaboration between FYFD and the Journal of Fluid Mechanics featuring a series of interviews with researchers from the APS DFD 2017 conference.

Sponsored by FYFD, the Journal of Fluid Mechanics, and the UK Fluids Network. Produced by Tom Crawford and Nicole Sharp with assistance from A.J. Fillo.

April 19, 2019 0

Vortex Ring Collisions and Transition to Turbulence

Vortex ring collisions are incredibly beautiful and also incredibly complex. Ryan McKeown of Harvard University explains his amazing experiments visualising colliding vortex rings and their transition to turbulence.

Every year the Gallery of Fluid Motion video contest features the newest and most beautiful research in fluid dynamics. Watch all of the Gallery of Fluid Motion videos here: http://gfm.aps.org.

Featuring:

R. McKeown et al. “The emergence of small scales in vortex ring collisions” https://doi.org/10.1103/APS.DFD.2017….

Physical Review Fluids publication: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevFluids…

April 11, 2019 0