Related papers: Where will a pen fall to?
What are the face-probabilities of a cuboidal die, i.e. a die with different side-lengths? This paper introduces a model for these probabilities based on a Gibbs distribution. Experimental data produced in this work and drawn from the…
Tool use is an important milestone in the evolution of intelligence. In this paper, we investigate different modes of tool use that emerge in a reaching and dragging task. In this task, a jointed arm with a gripper must grab a tool (T, I,…
We study the equilibrium shape of a liquid drop resting on top of a liquid surface, i.e., a floating lens. We consider the surface tension forces in non--wetting situations (negative spreading factor), as well as the effects of gravity. We…
We study the motion of elastic networks driven over a random substrate. Our model which includes local friction forces leads to complex dynamical behavior. We find a transition to a sliding state which belongs to a new universality class.…
Liquid droplets hanging from solid surfaces are commonplace, but their physics is complex. Examples include dew or raindrops hanging onto wires or droplets accumulating onto a cover placed over warm food or windshields. In these scenarios,…
The phenomenon of tumbling of microscopic objects is commonly associated with shear flows. We address the question of whether tumbling can also occur in stretching-dominated flows. To answer this, we study the dynamics of a semi-flexible…
The main objective of this article is to develop a matrix pencil approach for the study of the controllability and reachability of a class of linear singular discrete time systems. The description equation of a practical system may be…
The study of wetting phenomena is of great interest due to the multifaceted technological applications of hydrophobic and hydrophilic surfaces. The theoretical approaches proposed by Wenzel and later by Cassie and Baxter to describe the…
We investigate the evaporation of a two-dimensional droplet on a solid surface. The solid is flat but with smooth chemical variations that lead to a space-dependent local contact angle. We perform a detailed bifurcation analysis of the…
... and annoys everyone with unsolicited experiments. The present paper proposes a short pedagogical review of the various phenomena that can be observed in a coffee cup with little to no equipment. The physical domains spanned include…
Judging the readability of text has many important applications, for instance when performing text simplification or when sourcing reading material for language learners. In this paper, we present a 518 participant study which investigates…
We consider evaporation of pure liquid drops on a thermally conductive substrate. Two evaporative models are considered: one that concentrates on the liquid phase in determining evaporative flux, and the other one that centers on the…
We consider a liquid drop placed on a smooth homogeneous solid substrate as it spreads from rest to its eventual equilibrium state. The problem is studied numerically in the framework of a model where the contact angle formed by the drop's…
We are concerned with a novel sensor-based gesture input/instruction technology which enables human beings to interact with computers conveniently. The human being wears an emitter on the finger or holds a digital pen that generates a time…
We consider a matrix pencil whose coefficients depend on a positive parameter $\epsilon$, and have asymptotic equivalents of the form $a\epsilon^A$ when $\epsilon$ goes to zero, where the leading coefficient $a$ is complex, and the leading…
We consider a three dimensional liquid drop sitting on a rough and chemically heterogeneous substrate. Using a novel minimization technique on the free energy of this system, a generalized Young's equation for the contact angle is found. In…
We characterize the different morphologies adopted by a drop of liquid placed on two randomly oriented fibers, which is a first step toward understanding the wetting of fibrous networks. The present work reviews previous modeling for…
Because splashing is such a violent process, one might naively expect that neither the direction of droplet emission nor the amount of ejected material can be controlled with any precision. Even though it is observed countless times in the…
The article explores a simple yet interesting geometric problem: how to fold a notebook page so it is the most visible when the notebook is closed (i.e., as a bookmark). We start with a square page, then proceed to the rectangular page.…
Control of a hybrid dynamical system can manifest in one of two main ways: either through the continuous or the discrete dynamics. An example of controls influencing the continuous dynamics is legged locomotion, where the joints are…