ooblick magick

[nibot]

We all know that cornstarch + water (otherwise known as ooblick) is amazing stuff. However, these guys in texas at the center for nonlinear dynamics have taken it to a new level. If nothing else, you should check out the paper and definitely the movie. I wonder if this could be repeated just using a loudspeaker and function generator? Yet another reason to procrastinate on studying for finals!

[edit: you're too late! I guess the movie was "slashdotted," as it's no longer available from their web page. )-: edit2: nevermind, they fixed it.]

[edit3: here's an experiment with solitons that you can do on the surface of a pool: Falaco Solitons. Check out the paper gr-qc/0101098 in arXiv. "String theorists take note, for the structure consists of a pair of topological 2-dimensional rotational defects in a surface of discontinuity, globally connected and stabilized by a 1 dimensional topological defect or string."]

On another note, I'm curious how much of antenna theory can be co-opted to make antennas for sound. A yagi for sound seems a bit unlikely, but parabolic reflectors certainly work, and it seems that there ought to be some magic with cavity resonators.

Comments

[nibot.livejournal.com]

oh, i have such a soft spot in my little heart for fluid dynamics. seeing stuff like this makes me reluctant to leave my current research. and i'll admit: the first thing i thought when i clicked through the links was, "i should have gone to grad school there!"

yeah, I've felt that a few times. Like when reading about spintronics lately... they're working on spintronics at UNC-Chapel Hill but not at Rochester! but that's okay. my 2-week attention span will lock onto just about anything as being the coolest thing in the world, but for only about two weeks.

i've never made ooblick, but i probably should.

that's terrible! of course you should!

my first exposure to ooblick was at defcon iii in las vegas.. afterwards there was cornstarch everywhere in the hotel (the tropicana)! cornstarch footprints. cornstarch on the elevator buttons. it was most excellent!

then i hosted a "festivities" at my house where everyone was instructed to bring along a box of cornstarch:



and it was made into a bunch of ooblick:

(http://splorg.org/people/tobin/pictures/97-sep/)

highly recommended!