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posted by CoolHand on Friday July 10 2015, @04:08PM   Printer-friendly
from the do-you-believe-this dept.

When you spill a bit of water onto a tabletop, the puddle spreads—and then stops, leaving a well-defined area of water with a sharp boundary.
There's just one problem: The formulas scientists use to describe such a fluid flow say that the water should just keep spreading endlessly. Everyone knows that's not the case—but why?

This mystery has now been solved by researchers at MIT—and while this phenomenon might seem trivial, the finding's ramifications could be significant: Understanding such flowing fluids is essential for processes from the lubrication of gears and machinery to the potential sequestration of carbon dioxide emissions in porous underground formations.

The new findings are reported in the journal Physical Review Letters in a paper by Ruben Juanes, an associate professor of civil and environmental engineering, graduate student Amir Pahlavan, research associate Luis Cueto-Felgueroso, and mechanical engineering professor Gareth McKinley.

"What's striking here," Pahlavan adds, is that "what's actually stopping the puddle is forces that only act at the nanoscale." This illustrates very nicely how nanoscale physics affect our daily experiences, he says.

http://phys.org/news/2015-07-puddles-simple-everyday-phenomenon-unexplained.html

[Abstract]: http://journals.aps.org/prl/accepted/18079Y1aO511194cd818964075d4bced72a095c9f

[Also Covered By]: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/07/150708123326.htm


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  • (Score: 2) by WizardFusion on Friday July 10 2015, @04:25PM

    by WizardFusion (498) Subscriber Badge on Friday July 10 2015, @04:25PM (#207519) Journal

    Exactly this. If you add more water, it will expand again until the equilibrium is reached again.

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