#buoyancy — Public Fediverse posts

Melting Can Propel Icebergs

Icebergs have long served as a metaphor for not knowing what’s going on beneath the surface. Studies like today’s are a reminder of why that is. Researchers found that asymmetric icebergs–shaped, in this case, like a right triangular prism–can self-propel as they melt. Their shape forces cold, dense meltwater to slide down the surface, generating a sinking plume that propels the ice as a whole. The team demonstrated this effect in both fresh- and saltwater. For icebergs wandering into warm waters, the effect is particularly strong and may reach levels about 10% of the magnitude of dominant propulsive forces like wind. (Image and research credit: M. Berhanu et al.; via APS)

Fire From Below

A slight change in perspective can do wonders. In this video, the Slow Mo Guys look at a burning flame from below. They accomplish this by mounting a gas grill upside-down. This small change means that buoyancy can’t simply lift heat and exhaust gases away from the flame source. Instead, the flow pushes out and around the edges of the grill.

The views are, as always, amazing. The billowing flames are mesmerizing–often closer to laminar than turbulent. And the added spectacle of cinnamon combusting in the later segments really does make for the kind of visuals you’d expect in a sci-fi movie. (Video and image credit: The Slow Mo Guys)

What are the variables that affect if a block sinks or floats in a fluid?
Explore the basic principles of a submarine with our Buoyancy Sim. #Buoyancy, #Density, #iTeachPhysics 
https://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulations/buoyancy

Dispersing Pollutants via Smokestack

In our industrialized society, pollutants are, to an extent, unavoidable. Even with technologies to drastically reduce the amount of pollutants leaving a factory or plant, some will still get released. It’s up to engineers to make sure that those released spread out enough that their overall concentration does not pose a risk to public health. In this Practical Engineering video, Grady explains some of the physics and engineering considerations that go into this task.

As he demonstrates, taller smokestacks speed up the buoyant exhaust plume (to an extent), which exposes the plume to higher winds, greater turbulence, and, thus, quicker dispersal. But atmospheric conditions and even nearby buildings all affect how a plume spreads. (Image and video credit: Practical Engineering)

#airPollution #buoyancy #civilEngineering #fluidDynamics #infrastructure #physics #plumes #pollution #science #thermodynamics

How Particles Affect Melting Ice

When ice melts in salt water, there’s an upward flow along the ice caused by the difference in density. But most ice in nature is not purely water. What happens when there are particles trapped in the ice? That’s the question this video asks. The answer turns out to be relatively complex, but the researchers do a nice job of stepping viewers through their logic.

Large particles tend to fall off one-by-one, which doesn’t really affect the buoyant upward flow along the ice. In contrast, smaller particles fall downward in a plume that completely overwhelms the buoyant flow. That strong downward flow makes the ice ablate even faster. (Video and image credit: S. Bootsma et al.)

#buoyancy #flowVisualization #fluidDynamics #ice #melting #physics #science #sedimentTransport

🐋 How do whales float? They can weigh up to 200 tons, yet glide through the ocean with ease. It is not magic, it is physics and biology in harmony.

Blubber, lungs, and bone structure work together to fine-tune buoyancy. From Archimedes’ principle to deep-diving adaptations, whales master the water column with elegance.

👉 Read & watch here: https://TPC8.short.gy/PRxYoRqM

Grace beneath the waves!

#Whales #MarineBiology #Ocean #Buoyancy #Biodiversity #Wildlife #Physics #Biology #ScienceExplained #TPC8

Bubbly Tornadoes Aspin

Rotating flows are full of delightful surprises. Here, the folks at the UCLA SpinLab demonstrate the power a little buoyancy has to liven up a flow. Their backdrop is a spinning tank of water; it’s been spinning long enough that it’s in what’s known as solid body rotation, meaning that the water in the tank moves as if it’s one big spinning object. To demonstrate this, they drop some plastic tracers into the water. These just drop to the floor of the tank without fluttering, showing that there’s no swirling going on in the tank. Then they add Alka-Seltzer tablets.

As the tablets dissolve, they release a stream of bubbles, which, thank to buoyancy, rise. As the bubbles rise, they drag the surrounding water with them. That motion, in turn, pulls water in from the surroundings to replace what’s moving upward. That incoming water has trace amounts of vorticity (largely due to the influence of friction near the tank’s bottom). As that vorticity moves inward, it speeds up to conserve angular momentum. This is, as the video notes, the same as a figure skater’s spin speeding up when she pulls in her arms. The result: a beautiful, spiraling bubble-filled vortex. (Video and image credit: UCLA SpinLab)

#buoyancy #conservationOfAngularMomentum #flowVisualization #fluidDynamics #physics #rotatingFlow #science

How Cooling Towers Work

Power plants (and other industrial settings) often need to cool water to control plant temperatures. This usually requires cooling towers like the iconic curved towers seen at nuclear power plants. Towers like these use little to no moving parts — instead relying cleverly on heat transfer, buoyancy, and thermodynamics — to move and cool massive amounts of water. Grady breaks them down in terms of operation, structural engineering, and fluid/thermal dynamics in this Practical Engineering video. Grady’s videos are always great, but I especially love how this one tackles a highly visible piece of infrastructure from multiple engineering perspectives. (Video and image credit: Practical Engineering)

#buoyancy #civilEngineering #convection #engineering #evaporation #fluidDynamics #heatTransfer #infrastructure #physics #science #thermodynamics

Dive deep into #Buoyancy!
🧪Explore the principles of a submarine with a bottle, boat, duck, & other materials. Determine the amount of material you can put inside to control whether objects float, sink, or remain in the middle of the fluid. #chatphysics https://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulations/buoyancy

Dive deep into #Buoyancy!
🧪Explore the principles of a submarine with a bottle, boat, duck, & other materials. Determine the amount of material you can put inside to control whether objects float, sink, or remain in the middle of the fluid. #chatphysics https://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulations/buoyancy

Dive deep into #Buoyancy!
🧪Explore the principles of a submarine with a bottle, boat, duck, & other materials. Determine the amount of material you can put inside to control whether objects float, sink, or remain in the middle of the fluid. #chatphysics https://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulations/buoyancy

Dive deep into #Buoyancy!
🧪Explore the principles of a submarine with a bottle, boat, duck, & other materials. Determine the amount of material you can put inside to control whether objects float, sink, or remain in the middle of the fluid. #chatphysics https://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulations/buoyancy

Dive deep into #Buoyancy!
🧪Explore the principles of a submarine with a bottle, boat, duck, & other materials. Determine the amount of material you can put inside to control whether objects float, sink, or remain in the middle of the fluid. #chatphysics https://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulations/buoyancy

🆕Drumroll, please! You will love our LATEST sim, #Buoyancy. Students can now explore all the variables that affect if a block will sink or float in a fluid. They will also observe and analyze the changes in the #forces. https://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulations/buoyancy/ #physics #chatphysics

🆕Drumroll, please! You will love our LATEST sim, #Buoyancy. Students can now explore all the variables that affect if a block will sink or float in a fluid. They will also observe and analyze the changes in the #forces. https://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulations/buoyancy/ #physics #chatphysics

🆕Drumroll, please! You will love our LATEST sim, #Buoyancy. Students can now explore all the variables that affect if a block will sink or float in a fluid. They will also observe and analyze the changes in the #forces. https://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulations/buoyancy/ #physics #chatphysics

🆕Drumroll, please! You will love our LATEST sim, #Buoyancy. Students can now explore all the variables that affect if a block will sink or float in a fluid. They will also observe and analyze the changes in the #forces. https://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulations/buoyancy/ #physics #chatphysics

🆕Drumroll, please! You will love our LATEST sim, #Buoyancy. Students can now explore all the variables that affect if a block will sink or float in a fluid. They will also observe and analyze the changes in the #forces. https://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulations/buoyancy/ #physics #chatphysics

#introduction.
PhD student in #PhysicalOceanography in Gothenburg (Sweden), using both numerical modeling (NEMO model) and observations (ARGO, satellite products, etc) to investigate what drives the change of stratification type in the ocean (alpha, thermally stratified in subtropics - beta, stratified by salt in polar regions).

Interests: #buoyancy #equationOfState #thermalExpansion #openScience #opensource

Check my paper (see reply):

I participated in open source projects (see reply):

#introduction.
PhD student in #PhysicalOceanography in Gothenburg (Sweden), using both numerical modeling (NEMO model) and observations (ARGO, satellite products, etc) to investigate what drives the change of stratification type in the ocean (alpha, thermally stratified in subtropics - beta, stratified by salt in polar regions).

Interests: #buoyancy #equationOfState #thermalExpansion #openScience #opensource

Check my paper (see reply):

I participated in open source projects (see reply):

#introduction.
PhD student in #PhysicalOceanography in Gothenburg (Sweden), using both numerical modeling (NEMO model) and observations (ARGO, satellite products, etc) to investigate what drives the change of stratification type in the ocean (alpha, thermally stratified in subtropics - beta, stratified by salt in polar regions).

Interests: #buoyancy #equationOfState #thermalExpansion #openScience #opensource

Check my paper (see reply):

I participated in open source projects (see reply):

#introduction.
PhD student in #PhysicalOceanography in Gothenburg (Sweden), using both numerical modeling (NEMO model) and observations (ARGO, satellite products, etc) to investigate what drives the change of stratification type in the ocean (alpha, thermally stratified in subtropics - beta, stratified by salt in polar regions).

Interests: #buoyancy #equationOfState #thermalExpansion #openScience #opensource

Check my paper (see reply):

I participated in open source projects (see reply):

#introduction.
PhD student in #PhysicalOceanography in Gothenburg (Sweden), using both numerical modeling (NEMO model) and observations (ARGO, satellite products, etc) to investigate what drives the change of stratification type in the ocean (alpha, thermally stratified in subtropics - beta, stratified by salt in polar regions).

Interests: #buoyancy #equationOfState #thermalExpansion #openScience #opensource

Check my paper (see reply):

I participated in open source projects (see reply):