PDA

View Full Version : The Physics of Shampoo.



Wavelength
May 22nd, 2008, 07:26 PM
I'm not sure where to put this, but it's about shampoo so I thought it would be appropriate in the "mane" forum. Mods, feel free to move this if necessary.

My fiancé who is a Ph.D. student in Fluid Mechanics showed this to me today. Physicists at the University of Twente in the Netherlands have been experimenting with fluids and found interesting properties of how shampoo behaves as a fluid. When a thin stream of shampoo is poured from a height, a jet spontaneously develops. This is called the Kaye effect, after the person who discovered it (although he wasn't sure why it happened!).

Take a look (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GX4_3cV_3Mw): it's even cooler than it sounds. (They even shine a laser through the shampoo stream and discover more interesting properties.) :cool:

jojo
May 22nd, 2008, 07:37 PM
thats really neat and doesn't it look pretty? thanks for sharing, i loved the Kayes cascade best!

PatGear
May 22nd, 2008, 07:59 PM
Oh, that's neat! Thank you for sharing this with us, Wavelength.

spidermom
May 22nd, 2008, 08:20 PM
Very cool, WL. My fave effect? The way it grabs dirt and grease and rinses clean.

Florida Mom
May 22nd, 2008, 08:21 PM
So since shampoo is so "weird" maybe it's good that alot of us aren't using it too much!

Great video - really quite beautiful!

Bucatini
May 22nd, 2008, 09:09 PM
How cool! I just wish I understood what they were talking about...

rhosyn_du
May 22nd, 2008, 09:32 PM
That's so awesome. I used to do that with my shampoo on the side of the tub when I was little. I didn't realize it was a particularly odd thing for it to do; I just thought it looked really cool. My mother was not quite so amused, though. I used up a lot of shampoo that way.

physicschick
May 22nd, 2008, 09:44 PM
Thanks for posting that! I thought it was very cool.

Morag
May 22nd, 2008, 09:57 PM
Oh, thanks! I love stuff like this! Don't understand it, but I love it anyhow ...

(And I can't believe that we don't have an odd little guy pouring green sludge into a test tube somewhere among all these smileys ...)

Gumball
May 22nd, 2008, 10:35 PM
Now that's pretty cool. I watched it with bubbleguppy and her first comments were "It must be VO5 or one of those cheap brands so they would have enough to test." Haha. I just found it fascinating in general and the end picture with the various colors was really nifty!

Sorus
May 22nd, 2008, 11:21 PM
Great find, thank you! I now have a perfectly legitimate scientific way to discard the shampoos that don't work for me. Everything in that category is hereby refiled into "fluid dynamics research" and will be studied carefully.

Sofoulee
May 22nd, 2008, 11:42 PM
That was really cool! It kinda makes me want to set up a little experiment in my bathroom! haha, but that might get a little messy.... or CLEAN if you look at it that way :D

kate46
May 23rd, 2008, 02:27 AM
Thanks WL that was really interesting, off to go play with shampoo before DH gets home and thinks I've really lost it :D.

Riot Crrl
May 23rd, 2008, 02:35 AM
The one shampoo I really want to get rid of is a 2 in 1, so I don't know if it would work. Maybe I should just scrub the bathtub with it.

Hypnotica
May 23rd, 2008, 04:03 AM
Can't someone test conditioner too? Would be nice to see what properties it has!

Tabitha
May 23rd, 2008, 09:17 AM
Cool indeed! I enjoyed that and the end rainbow shot was beautiful.

Islandgrrl
May 23rd, 2008, 11:02 AM
That was just incredible! I love physics - I'm just always amazed at how things happen.

Sherri
May 23rd, 2008, 11:03 AM
that is so neat and all with shampoo. i never would have thought of it. I also like the laser part.

Buddaphlyy
May 23rd, 2008, 01:22 PM
I used to do this all the time when I was little. Who knew I was actually doing something with a scientific basis.

Haith
May 23rd, 2008, 04:43 PM
Now, whenever I'm accused of procrastinating at LHC, I can point out that this is a very educational place to be! Ha ha

Medvssa
May 24th, 2008, 12:05 PM
Thanks for sharing, that was very cool!!


Who knew I was actually doing something with a scientific basis.
Everything has a scientific base :D

jacqueline101
September 23rd, 2013, 10:34 AM
I'm glad you posted this.