Mini-Hoops

Over at Popsci, the physics of tossing a ping-pong ball into a beer cup, with videos of, well, tossing a ping-pong ball into a beer cup, under various conditions you’d find in a dorm (starting with the unlikely presence of beer cups).

These guys are pretty amazing. And the nonchalance with which they accomplish each trick shot adds a certain understated humor to this entertaining video. But though the guys seem to be developing a seemingly useless (if highly impressive) skill in their spare time, there’s quite a bit of complex science at play.

I think being able to edit out the misses tempers that amazing/impressive just a little. Mostly it reminds me of how much free time I had in college, even though it didn’t seem that way at the time.

You Spin Me 'Round

From arXiv, rotation of a thin film of water when subjected to perpendicular electric fields.

The question is: what’s causing the rotation? The team can easily control the direction and speed of rotation by varying the relative angle and direction of the electric fields, which rules out the possibility that convection is causing the rotation (something that is seen when a field is applied to some thin films of liquid crystals). Neither does adding salt to water change the effect, ruling out the possibility that ion movement directs the flow.

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