Physics is supposed to be predictable. Drop a ball, and gravity pulls it down. Heat water, and it boils. Light travels in straight lines. Yet throughout history, scientists have encountered ...

A team of mathematicians used whimsical "silly sprinklers" to solve a physics mystery that has puzzled scientists for decades ...

Each summer, lawns are marked by a familiar addition: "silly sprinklers," whose loops and spirals spew water in creative ways ...

Physicists have debated which way a submerged sprinkler sucking in water would spin. Careful experiments provide an answer.

Fathoming fluid flow Flows of water coming into a reverse sprinkler, visualized using particles and false-coloured. (Courtesy: NYU's Applied Mathematics Laboratory) New insights into the “reverse ...

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — After a decade of preparation and two years of active experiments in space, a facility that Purdue University and NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland designed, built and ...

In a study published in Physics of Fluids, the researchers used the Navier-Stokes equations—the bedrock math of fluid flows—and a few experiments to investigate the behavior of thin liquid films that ...

Purdue University researchers are designing and building an experiment that will operate during a test flight of a new type of reusable rocket to be launched by aerospace company Blue Origin LLC. The ...

Seismic kitchen roll: photograph showing paper towel being stretched between an anchor (bottom) and springs (top). (Courtesy: Tzortzopoulos et al. / Geophysical Research Letters) A seismic model based ...

"This is among NASA's largest and most complex experiments for fluid physics research," Mudawar said. "We have published more than 70 papers on reduced gravity and fluid flow since the project's ...