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This study investigates the motion of a falling smartphone under the influence of air drag using acceleration data collected by its built-in accelerometer. The proper acceleration profiles demonstrate the suitability of the turbulent drag…
Fluid dynamics, and flight in particular, is a domain where organisms challenge our understanding of its physics. Integrating the current knowledge of animal flight, we propose to revisit the use of live animals to study physical phenomena.…
The impact of nanometer sized drops on solid surfaces is studied using molecular dynamics simulations. Equilibrated floating drops consisting of short chains of Lennard-Jones liquids with adjustable volatility are directed normally onto an…
The paper considers the dynamics of the spreading liquid droplets after impact on a solid surface. The dynamics of a drop falling on a solid surface is shown using numerical simulation based on the solution of 2D and 3D Navier-Stokes…
We explore the evolution of a splash when a liquid drop impacts a smooth, dry surface. There are two splashing regimes that occur when the liquid viscosity is varied, as is evidenced by its dependence on ambient gas pressure. A…
The interaction of aerosol-cloud-precipitation has an important impact on the global climate. The understanding of this issue is related to the uncertainty of climate change prediction. The traditional indirect effect of aerosols suggests…
Oblique collision of solid particles with surfaces has been a topic of extensive study in Newtonian mechanics, which also explains the motion of bubbles and droplets to some extent. Here, we observe that air bubbles exhibit a backflipping…
When a dense stream of dry, non-cohesive grains hits a fixed target, a collimated sheet is ejected from the impact region, very similar to what happens for a stream of water. In this study, as a continuation of the investigation why such…
In windy conditions, the air is turbulent. The strong and intermittent velocity variations of turbulence are invisible to flying animals. Nevertheless, flying animals, not much larger than the smallest scales of turbulence, manage to…
This study explores the impact of feathers on the hydrodynamic drag experienced by diving birds, which is critical to their foraging efficiency and survival. Employing a novel experimental approach, we analyzed the kinematics of both…
The leaves of many plants are superhydrophobic, a property that may have evolved to clean the leaves by encouraging water droplets to bead up and roll off. Superhydrophobic surfaces can also exhibit reduced friction and liquids flowing over…
As a droplet impacts on a granular substrate, both the intruder and the target deform, during which the liquid may penetrate into the substrate. {These three aspects together distinguish} it from other impact phenomena in the literature. We…
The interaction of a hot, high-velocity wind with a cold, dense molecular cloud has often been assumed to resemble the evolution of a cloud embedded in a post-shock flow. However, no direct comparative study of these two processes currently…
Flies that walk in a covered planar arena on straight paths avoid colliding with each other, but which of the two flies stops is not random. High-throughput video observations, coupled with dedicated experiments with controlled robot flies…
It has been shown that a water drop can bounce persistently, when thrown on a super-hydrophobic substrate. We present here scaling arguments which allow us to predict the maximal deformation and the contact time of the drop. This approach…
The present study explores the impact of a non-Newtonian fluid drop on a rigid surface using a mesh-free approach, Smoothed Particle Hydrodynam-ics. The complex interaction between viscous and elastic forces during drop impact may be…
Bristled and membranous insect wings have co-evolved despite apparently serving the same functionality. We emulate flight physics using an automated free-fall experiment to better understand how and why several distinct wing forms may have…
This article discusses a potential impact of turbulent velocity fluctuations of the air on a drizzle formation in Cumulus clouds. Two different representations of turbulent velocity fluctuations for a microphysics formulated in a Lagrangian…
When a droplet gently lands on an atomically smooth substrate, it will most likely contact the underlying surface in about 0.1 s. However, theoretical estimation from fluid mechanics predicts a contact time of 10 to 100 s. What causes this…
It is well known that ``equivalent'' sprint race times run with different accompanying wind speeds or at different altitudes are anything but equivalent races. The drag force acting on a sprinter is a function of air density and the…