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Recipe for Making Symetrical Holes in Water
scottZed writes "Danish researchers found a simple way to make curiously shaped air holes in a bucket of water. Simply rig the bucket to have a spinning plate at the bottom, and depending on the speed, you can get an ellipse, three-sided star, square, pentagon, or hexagon. The effect may help explain such shapes seen in atmospheric disturbances on Earth and other planets. One practical use: really trippy washing machines."
This from a publication with the byline "the best in science journalism"
Bah!
Aliens obviously use the plate to transmit geometrical patterns in an effort to contact us. This proves it beyond all doubt.
I'm curious about the researcher's name, Tomas Bohr, any relation to Niels?
It looks like the end result of system resonance set up between the harmonics and the properties of water. It would be cool to artificially vary the viscosity of the water with polymers, or add salts to increase specific gravity to note the affect on the pattern properties. OK, some of you are thinking, this guy is a nut but it just proves how never ending the learning process is as it relates to even the simplest things observed in nature. I like it.
I say "Triangle"
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
One practical use: really trippy washing machines
practical
adj 1: concerned with actual use or practice; 2: guided by practical experience and observation rather than theory; 3: being actually such in almost every respect; 4: having or put to a practical purpose or use;
pedantic
adj 1: Like a pedant, overly concerned with formal rules and trivial points of learning; 2: Being showy of one's knowledge, often in a boring manner; 3: Often used to describe a person who emphasizes their knowledge through the use of vocabulary; 4: Being finicky or picky with language.
seriously, what if in the ocean the waterflow is spinning very hard itself under certain conditions, wouldn't that be a possible explanation for the disappearances in the Bermuda Triangle?
Yes, that's right. A suitably airplane-shaped hole would indeed allow an airplane to fall to the bottom of the ocean without getting wet, nicely and logically accounting for its sudden and complete disappearance. Similarly, holes isomorphic to boats and drowning people would account for those inexplicable losses.
Oh, wait, Bermuda triangle---you probably meant a triangular hole. No, sorry, that's just stupid.
But seriously, what if in the ocean the waterflow is spinning very hard itself under certain conditions, wouldn't that be a possible explanation for the disappearances in the Bermuda Triangle?
You don't need an explanation for the disappearances in the Bermuda Triangle, at least no special explanation. The disappearances there occur at no greater frequency per unit of shipping or flight than anywhere else in the world.
You're confusing randomness with chaos theory. Randomness is essentially us saying "We might know the principles at work, but it's too complicated for us to make an accurate prediction on what is exactly going to happen." Brownian motion is one such example. We have a good idea on the physics behind it, but the huge number of interactions that take place mean that we can only predict the behavior of the entire system, not of single particles in it. Furthermore, single particles do not show a propensity to do anything in particular. You won't find random particles moving in circles, for example.
Chaos theory deals with systems where we can calculate effects on single objects in the system, and where these objects exhibit non-random patterns. You mentioned fractals already (although strictly speaking, that's defined as a complex system rather than a chaotic one), and population growth patterns are another.
Those who can, do. Those who can't, sue.
"Harry Swinney, a specialist in pattern-forming fluid flows at the University of Texas at Austin, says the new observation is roughly in line with what one might expect."
...yeah... the technical term.
Wahhh~? Specialist in pattern-forming fluid flows at University of Texas at Austin? Heck I hope Mr. Swinney's parents didn't flush their saving down the toilet on his college education... oops, I mean, symetrically pattern-forming spiral downward flowing.
"Don't let fools fool you. They are the clever ones."
Frequency of disappearances is not enough to say that a special explanation is not needed. The question was not "Are there more disappearances in the Bermuda Triangle?" but, "Are the circumstances of disappearances in the Bermuda Triangle unusual?"
It is the same question. If there are no more disapearances there, there is no need for any consideration of unusual circumstances. Unusual circumstances are only needed to explain unusual numbers of disapearances, and there aren't any. Looking for extraordinary explanations of ordinary statistics is unscientific and pointless.
Also, while people keep saying there are statistics, I haven't seen them, nor are sources for the statistics cited.
A good source of statistics is insurance payments for missing vessels: Lloyds of London claim no evidence of any special effect associated with the Bermuda Triangle area (if there were, ships would have to pay extra insurance to enter the area).
Some better photos can be found here, along with a video. Unfortunately the video seems to show the vortex from its side rather than the top. Pretty cool though!
http://dcwww.camp.dtu.dk/~tbohr/RotatingPolygon/
Reminds me of an old joke:
Q: How do you drive a Belgian nuts?
A: You put him into a circular room, and tell him there are fries in the corner.
So why the different shapes? As the bucket speeds up, three things happen. There's a different speed differential between the bucket and the water, the water depth decreases and the extra g forces increase (effectively increasing local gravity). This changes the wavelength of the wave. So, since the bucket has a finite circumference and is circular, standing waves will form that go back to their own starting point which will make shapes of integer numbers of sides. (non integer numbers of sides will not form a standing wave).
Engineering is the art of compromise.
This reminds me of the work of the Swiss doctor Hans Jenny in the 60s. Dr. Jenny sent audible simple sine waves through various media and photographed the patterns that would emerge.
The results were often strikingly beautiful and symmetrical. His two books on the subject, full of high-quality imagery, were recently reprinted as one volume. He called his study of wave properties "cymatics."
The photographs illustrate the multi-sensory aspect of all phenomena. Frequency and wavelength show their existence in many forms and media, all representing the same phenomena. You can string a violin bow over sand on glass and see some incredible webs of patterns emerge in the sand. It's amazing to think that both aural and visual feedback from the same source can be produced so simply. And, importantly to myself at least, have both be aesthetically pleasing.
http://www.cymaticsource.com/ has the reprints of the books. I think they also relate it to a lot of more sketchy spiritual stuff that the good Dr. never mentioned AFAIK.
In this case in TFA, the researchers have seen the amazingly symmetrical and simple visual representation of the interaction between fluid, vessel, and frequency (rotation). It does make sense that such a simple phenomenon (rotating fluid) would have a simple, fundamental visual pattern. I bet it looks a lot more interesting than it sounds though.
They're stoners. whoaaaa....
Sure you can - just look under /usr/src/linux-2.6.16/arch/h20 in your favorite distro.
Please stand clear of the doors, por favor mantenganse alejado de las puertas