Photographiend
No longer a newbie, moving up!
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This was my attempt to be able to view the effects of gravity on a small scale.
I was aware of the other factors playing a roll in this experiment: the initial ripples created when objects would touch the water, the way the objects resting in the water would create little wells in the surface and underlying subtle currents.
But as my physicist friend, my Dad and now my husband (also a scientist) have all informed me, what I am observing here has to do with the surface tension of the water. I am not convinced but I will accept it.
And while it is a failure, it is still interesting.
I should include the details. This is the fast forwarded version cutting and hour and a half of video down to just over 2 min.
1. The first mini clip is of what got my mind started on this whole tangent. Cereal.
I was eating cereal and I noticed that with each scoop I removed from the bowl the remaining would scatter then slowly cluster back together. I figured this had to be at least in part due to the gravity of the Cheerios pulling on one another. But there was the factor of absorption that I couldn't dismiss.
2. This is when I decided to look for another medium that would float but not have an absorption factor. Plastic beads.
3. This worked pretty well but in prior attempts I had issues with some of the beads sinking which is why I decided to try Perler beads. The peculiar way these beads would change orientation entirely to line up end to end was just so curious I had to include it in here. My best guess, 2 things are contributing to this.
First, they are drawn towards each other at the path of least resistance; second the hole in the center gets water flowing through it which creates a suction as pieces become closer.
4. This is when I decided to experiment with a denser center to see if it would make the pieces move faster. So I placed a cluster of hematite rocks in the center... only problem was the hematite was magnetized and what we end up observing here is the magnetic field. First is with the poles pointed up and down.
5. Now with the plastic beads and the poles pointing side to side.
6. Now with the Perler beads and the poles pointing side to side.
7. This time I sprinkled glitter in the bowl thinking it would allow me to observe any subtle currents in the water... well not so much but quite interesting how the results differ from not having glitter in the water. Stopped filming after 11 min when I ran out of memory.
After this last recording I think maybe I shouldn't be so quick to write off theories of dark matter...
I was aware of the other factors playing a roll in this experiment: the initial ripples created when objects would touch the water, the way the objects resting in the water would create little wells in the surface and underlying subtle currents.
But as my physicist friend, my Dad and now my husband (also a scientist) have all informed me, what I am observing here has to do with the surface tension of the water. I am not convinced but I will accept it.
And while it is a failure, it is still interesting.
I should include the details. This is the fast forwarded version cutting and hour and a half of video down to just over 2 min.
1. The first mini clip is of what got my mind started on this whole tangent. Cereal.
I was eating cereal and I noticed that with each scoop I removed from the bowl the remaining would scatter then slowly cluster back together. I figured this had to be at least in part due to the gravity of the Cheerios pulling on one another. But there was the factor of absorption that I couldn't dismiss.
2. This is when I decided to look for another medium that would float but not have an absorption factor. Plastic beads.
3. This worked pretty well but in prior attempts I had issues with some of the beads sinking which is why I decided to try Perler beads. The peculiar way these beads would change orientation entirely to line up end to end was just so curious I had to include it in here. My best guess, 2 things are contributing to this.
First, they are drawn towards each other at the path of least resistance; second the hole in the center gets water flowing through it which creates a suction as pieces become closer.
4. This is when I decided to experiment with a denser center to see if it would make the pieces move faster. So I placed a cluster of hematite rocks in the center... only problem was the hematite was magnetized and what we end up observing here is the magnetic field. First is with the poles pointed up and down.
5. Now with the plastic beads and the poles pointing side to side.
6. Now with the Perler beads and the poles pointing side to side.
7. This time I sprinkled glitter in the bowl thinking it would allow me to observe any subtle currents in the water... well not so much but quite interesting how the results differ from not having glitter in the water. Stopped filming after 11 min when I ran out of memory.
After this last recording I think maybe I shouldn't be so quick to write off theories of dark matter...
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