Blending Fluid Mechanics and Art—Part I: Making a Splash with High-Speed Photography

• Avery Trevino ^[1] ; Madeline E. Federle ^[1] ; Jack-William Barotta ^[1] ; Roberto Zenit ^[1]
  1. [1] Brown University

     Brown University

     City of Providence, Estados Unidos

     
• Localización: The Physics Teacher, ISSN 0031-921X, Vol. 64, Nº. 5, 2026, págs. 348-352
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • In part I of III of “Blending Fluid Mechanics and Art,”1,2 students capture a photo of a fluid droplet impact by controlling a peristaltic pump, digital camera, and flash programmed through an Arduino microprocessor. As a fluid droplet impacts a fluid bath, an aesthetically pleasing series of events unfolds. Namely, a fluid crown is formed around the point of contact, and after this crown submerges back into the bath, a tall jet emerges and subsequently collapses. The objective of this lab is for students to capture particular moments of this fluid process in an artistic way. The photograph’s appeal is enhanced by modifying lighting, timing, and fluid properties. This lab aims to expose students from all fields to the interdisciplinarity of engineering in an exciting and novel way. Students use fundamental principles from fluid mechanics in order to manipulate their final images according to their individual vision, gaining physical intuition into properties such as viscosity, surface tension, and density.