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I'd be interested to see the three water streams coloured red green and blue to be able to better observe the different states of repelling/mixing.
Then they wouldn’t be the same solution would they -_-
that would be huge
It would add too much complexity for a KZhead video. The air bubble thing is also kind of not even close but works for YT. Waves aren't 2D but the demos look better in 2D or 2.5D. Scale is ignored in this demo.
I was thinking the same 😂
Probably could do it with different colored light on each tube, coloring the water without actually changing the solution.
It would be interesting to see what would happen at higher pressure!
Yes! I wanted to know this too. Higher pressure would mean thicker air and harder for water droplets to displace it, I believe? The droplets may last a bit longer. But I assume it won't be as effective as vibration, since it continuously introduces new air between the droplets and the surface.
Or maybe in a container of SF6
@@Appletank8 . . . Which brings up the related question of whether what's important is number of gas molecules per cm^3 or total mass of gas per cm^3? If the former, then SF[6] wouldn't help, and helium wouldn't hurt; if the latter, then SF[6] would help and helium would make this phenomenon basically impossible at 1 atmosphere.
same
My thoughts too.
Water that doesn't mix with water? Stop trying to break physics. You're going to crash the simulation we all live in.
It's not breaking physics. It's doing physics under uncommon parameters.
Science is always evolving our understanding. Love to learn. We don't know everything.
NEVER mix the streams! 👻
_Guys I have an idea 🥃💧🌧️_
Shhh don’t let them know that we know
4:45 That must explain why it always happens in my bathtub when I turn the shower on. The water in the tub basin mixes with soap residue, then that soapy water is hit with droplets of fresh water from the shower head causing it to repel for a couple of seconds. It’s so cool in the early morning because the sun comes in the shower window at just the right angle to illuminate just the droplets of water dancing around making them look like they’re glowing. Or, the repeated pelting from the drops of water coming from the shower head vibrates the water enough to maintain the spheres longer
I'm reminded of lava lamps. The coil at the bottom is actually to break the surface tension so the blobs can rejoin each other.
@6:20 If you would have slighty colored the water solutions with different colors (just as much as not to change the surface tension), perhaps one could discern the repulsion better. Here it seems, that it flows across.
Very interesting, especially the one with the vibration. Could you make this in a heavier atmosphere with e.g. SF6 Sulfur hexafluoride as well ?
It's hilarious that, to this day, when I hear "surface tension" I automatically think of the James Blish sci-fi story that I read 45 years ago. Imagine all this scientific understanding mixed with tiny life forms, living out their lives in the process. Great video, thank you. I've noticed these effects with water, but never known how and why they work.
I think I had always wished this would happen when I was a little kid and my cousins and I would “cross the streams” and have battles. Im not certain our moms loved that we played that game.
I actually observed this by chance while urinating and got so intrigued by it that I ended up destroying the toilet. Needless to say my parents got very angry with me for that... For that matter, one paper I read suggests that a temperature difference between the droplets and the bulk liquid does help enhance the effect as the droplet evaporates, which is precisely what you get when pissing
Bro……., I thought I was the only one. I was always wary of telling people because they’d either think I was crazy, or a pervert, or that they’d ask me to perform the trick. 😂
@@Martin-hb4illol same here but I went ahead with it anyway in the name of science. My comment was about piss streams splitting in two and sometimes even coming back together into a single stream.
I just used your link to send Historic Letters to a retired teacher that is going to love this. I just received a digital copy for myself. It was from the "Wright Cycle Company" to The Smithsonian Institution. It was dated May 20, 1899. This is so cool!
I see this phenomenon when pouring oil in a funnel while changing oil in my car. Never knew it had a name though.
Thank you, I've been curious about this lately and you finally explained it!
I accidentally made a weird mixture of liquids containing 5+ kinds of dyes and ink and some other stuff in middle school, and its droplets can stay on itself's surface for minutes when stable. I have absolute no idea how did I made such a weird liquid, and have never reproduced anything close to it again. 😶
Cool 😮💯👍🏻
😮
The droplets in your mixture may have used buoyancy to float instead of coalescence
Invents liquid vibranium by accident. "I accidentally made a weird mixture of liquids in middle school"
Did you record it, or was it back in the "not even a potato" age?
Wow this is really cool :) I've noticed this phenomenon a couple of times myself, but that vibration trick really blows my mind. Awesome!
This sure seems fascinating. Couldn't even wrap around just how impactful this experiment is. Blew my head out of proportion.
Now turn your vacuum chamber into a pressure chamber and see if you can get non-coalescence to occur with regular water by just increasing atmospheric pressure
@@jpetrovich1987 do you know you replied to a comment rather than made your own comment?
@@cinnamoncat8950 yes 😆 I realized that after the fact and honestly I'm still very new to the commenting game on KZhead so I couldn't figure out for the life of me how to do anything about it 🙃 🤷🏼♂️
I'VE ALWAYS WONDERED WHY THIS HAPPENS ONCE IN A WHILE. I always thought it had something to do with the leidenfrost effect because it was kinda similar but only temporary. I'm so glad I finally understand why this happens.
The Leidenfrost effect is trapped air too, I think. So you were probably right!
@@redryder3721 btw it's steam rather than air for the leidenfrost effect
I think you have nailed it....From my fluid dynamics class you are descrbing classic boundary layer effects where the thickness of the layer is maximum under laminar flow. Just as you created in the in tube jets as tank head dropped.
James have you ruled out electrostatic effects with the non - coalescing streams of water ? We know that fluids can acquire a charge when forced through a nozzle so maybe there is also some electrostatic repulsion ? Also , with the vacuum chamber how do we know the reduction in boiling point isn’t influencing the amount of vapour from the water itself which might change the forces between the droplets and the water ( or indeed the surface tension) and have an effect?
Not James but, electrostatic effects likely play a role in non-coalescing water streams, as fluids can acquire a charge, potentially leading to electrostatic repulsion. Regarding the vacuum chamber, non-coalescence is found to be pressure-dependent. Reduced pressure in such environments can alter the boiling point and vapor pressure, impacting the dynamics of droplet behavior.
Great episode! You made surface tension seem far more fascinating than I ever thought it could be!
It’s in the simulator
Damn dude your videos just keep getting better and better over time. I've been thoroughly impressed by the last 6mo of videos
8:04 - It works better when you attach the tray to the vibrating surface..... It also looks cool looking over it w/ a nice back lighting.
Good explanation.. Always loves to watch
EXCELENT VIDEO!!! THANK YOU! and MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! :)
0:34 What in the flying fudge... That literally looks like how a typical game glitch would look. When the center gets redefined and no external forces force it to be anywhere, it just has no parameters to decide to snap to one side and thus it just centers itself where it is. And that explains reality too, fascinating!
These beads of water skating across a water surface were called antibubbles in a Physics Girl video from a few years back. That video showed liquid in liquid as well as liquid in air bubbles.
No they're not that's something else
Antibubbles are what happens when you have a membrane of air underwater, literally a reverse bubble, as opposed to a membrane of water in air.
@@crusher9z9 Interesting - so they were not using the correct terminology in that video.
@peglor there is a video you need to see, search smarter every day The WALKING WATER Mystery.
I've seen this effect so many times, and was hoping to see an explanation and official name for it eventually, so this is exciting to see!
The action lab always finds a way to get his vacuum chamber involved
Posy has great footage of this -- a hot drink can emit enough steam from the surface to provide a perpetual cushion, holding up condensed water droplets from the steam itself. Depending on the droplets' size, they can produce an iridescent effect.
I just saw the slow mo guys short and commented I really wanted to see a physicist go into a super in-depth explanation of why this happens, then this video showed up in my recommended. Thanks youtube!
My first thought was to retry the experiment in higher atmospheric pressure, but then someone suggested a heavier gas. Both might give different results and I'm not sure how the heavier gas would behave... I mean, the two experiments in the video were with a Nitrogen/Oxygen atmosphere and a vacuum. Maybe a different atmosphere would cause the water to behave differently.
Makes me wonder what effect static electricity would have on this
Op died finding out
If The Matrix/Simulation ever is going to start glitching out. Or if that theory ever is going to be proven, this channel is where we are going to see it first. The man is effectively breaking reality by dismantling it to its most basic functions and putting it back together again. On a platform where its easy to get overwhelmed by intense and dedicated stupidity, channels like this are VERY important. 🧠
Venkman: “You said crossing the streams… was BAD.”
Watched this happen at the beach in the ocean while it was raining. All the rain was bouncing from the fresh vs the salty ocean. Pretty cool to see.
It looks so fascinating in slow mo! 💛💛💛
It's always a resonant frequency created on the surface of the water that creates them. If you notice, it happens mostly near the edge of your container, and the size of your drop, the nearness to the edge of the container effects that resonant frequency. I bet the larger the container is the less likely you can create this with just water.
@TheActionLab great video as always. What type of microphone do you use? If you've addressed it before I apologize. Thank you for your time.
This was very interesting, I learned a lot!
Love the slow mo guys and smarter everyday shout-out!
8:30 I was about to complain that you didn't test in vacuum despite having one. God job man!
Me: GUYS WHAT IF THE CAKE IS A SPY!?!?!?!? cake:eat me
For that last test you did, it makes sense that removing the air will make it stop happening since air under the drop was what makes it work in the first place
I have a suggestion for a future video. In soundproofing it is impossible to stop very low frequencies. Even noise cancellation doesn't really work. High frequency sound proofing is no problem. It would seem that having a vacuum chamber around the room to be soundproofed would stop any frequency. This would solve the issue, but you would need a solution for the door. Fun project?
Those historic letters are brilliant. You just pay $70 and they mail you a paper printout from google images each month! What a deal!
I don't think pressure has anything to do with it. The main issue is that air gets in between the drop and the surface of the water. All you did was remove the air from the vacuum chamber so there's no more air to get in between the drop and the surface so then there's nothing to bounce against. As someone else suggested, it might be interesting to see what happens when you increase the pressure. Does it add enough air that there's more "cushion" between the drops and surface or does maybe the air pressure can push "harder" against the drop and push it into the surface more?
Pressure and density are related in glasses, so reducing pressure and removing air are the same thing unless you also change he temperature or gas composition. Also he didn't pull a vacuum since the water would boil in a vacuum, he just reduced pressure to 0.4 (somewhere about halfway between Tibet and Mount Everest)
I would love to see the collaboration between Slow Mo Guys and The Action Lab on this experiment.
I observed a similar effect with oil draining from an ATV. The final stream broke into droplets before hitting the oil in the drain pan and then danced across the top for about 4 inches before snapping into the surface. Perhaps the Texas humidity had some influence?
This is a perfect opportunity to play with INCREASING pressure, instead of always using the vacuum chamber. Try experimenting with a high pressure chamber. Great content as always.
There's no Action Lab without vacuum chamber 😂
Really cool!. Be interesting to know if raising the pressure would allow the effect to start happening in water without the added soap.
Thanks! You gave me an idea!
Hey Action Lab, could you perhaps make a video on Stoichiometry? I've been trying to get a better idea of how it works and i think it would make for great content on this channel
9:15 It is a neat demonstration but it doesn't take away all of the possibilities. There Is a possibility that it is dependent on the closeness to the boiling point and not the pressure. While the pressure drops so does the boiling point.
Physics Girl did a video called "What are Antibubbles?" seven years ago about this. 😻
On really cold rainy days I see water non coalescing on top of the lake or river. Sometimes on my windshield too.
Interesting video. I've mostly noticed this with coffee, didn't realise it happens with slightly soapy water. I would have imagined that soapy water being more sticky / better at wetting things would coalesce more easily than pure water. I also have to remember not to all these anti-bubbles because that's something else.
Me personally, I enjoy a little bit of soapy coffee. It results in zero coalescensce within my body - a truly remarkable phenomenon
9:22 - I think its more accurate to say that its air dependent, not pressure dependent
Water can have "structure" internally and at the surface. With or without "structure", any of these factors can influence: Air pressure (explored). Electric field & air ions (explored). Sound in the air. Vibration of the water or tank (explored). System temperature. Temperature gradient (explored). Air gas mix ratio (oxygen nitrogen argon; carbon dioxide). Other uncommon gases. Dissolved gases. Deuterium fraction in the water. Dissolved soap (explored). Dissolved salts. Ultrapure water? Reflected waves from one drop can affect the next drop, so use a huge tank so that the waves spread out and don't come back for a long time. Type of light shining on the system (infrared, ultraviolet, visible). Radio waves. Strength of gravity (run the experiment in a large centrifuge for higher gravity; lower gravity is difficult; zero gravity is available in free-fall or in orbit). Laser pulses to tickle the drops at various times after formation.
The pressure may just be shaping the drop on the way down. Or it is affecting the speed achieved, so the fall distance should be reduced to actually compare extremes.
Maybe it's a similar/same effect in the shower when you pour a stream of liquid soap.....like shampoo in your hand, at an ANGLE. It deflects instead of streaming down into your hand.
9:16 It would be really interesting to see with a more dense gas how the non-coalescence increase, or just augmenting the air pressure instead of degassing
I love how almost everything on this channel ends up being in a vacuum chamber.
That vacuum chamber has earned its price a hundred times over on this channel.
Really cool experiment! Thank you! I have a big fascination with water! I took some Laws of Water and experimented in my pool, one summer! LOL Had a blast!
Might be interesting to see if you could demonstrate the strengthening of the effect in water by increasing the pressure in a chamber🤔🤔
Thanks
Thank you for blinding me at 0:45
Neat, I wonder if you could also increase the duration by increasing the atmospheric pressure, or by trying another gas.
with no air in the chamber, there can't be a layer of air seperating the droplets. I think it's an interaction between the surface tension of both liquids and the air trapped between. The air cant leave through the droplet because the surface tension wont let it, and the velocity of the two liquids colliding traps the air between, neither willing to open up and let the air escape so they can unite. The soap helps because it changes the surface tension of the water. the pressure determines how much air is trapper. That would be my theory anyways.
you should also test it with the frequency machine in the chamber, to see if it's only pressure dependant or not, it seemed to me that vacuum chamer not only pull the pressure but also the air and i think it only reducing the chance it happening, and i think i could still see it at max vacuum in this vid
I always wondered what these were when I was a kid, and I did notice that it happened when the water was soapy. Wasn't sure if it was a weird type of bubble or something.
Whilst pouring in new oil to top off the fryer at Sonic Drive In years ago, as a young adult, I discovered that what splashes out of the fryer when pouring is, in fact, the new (room temperature) oil. Because it never burned me when it splattered out due to a careless and rushed pour. It was room temperature rather than 450 degrees F. I'd know the difference. By extension, when taking a leak, any splashback is pure urine and not toilet water.
3:35 love that Dr. Pepper shirt, now I want one.
Ah Yes Nice To See This Guy Again!
My brother, and I observed something similar on regular occasions when we were kids.
That historic mail is great. They must now make historic tapes and include the Watergate tapes from Crook Nixon
Loving the Fallout 3 -like sound track in the beginning 👌
I was waiting for the vacuum chamber to make an appearance. The Action Lab didn't disappoint!
When he said 8:08 "So I propose that's it's actually the air inbetween the water that's keeping the droplets from mixing. But is that really the case?"
It wouldn’t be an actionlab video without a vacuum chamber test
1:05 When you’re sword fighting with the homies.
Those few droplets that were bouncing on the surface were so cute
Now increase the pressure. See if you can make it last longer.
Water isn’t actually that wet. In that it often sits on top of fabric or substances without soaking in. If you add a small amount of ethanol it increases the waters ability to soak in making it more ‘wet’.
I completely understand using oscillations to induce air pressure variations between the droplet and the surface (ideal frequency is probably dependent on droplet size, i.e. related to its resonant frequency). *But,* why would it suddenly stop after 15 minutes? 🤔 ...😮 *UNLESS....* It's slowly _losing molecules_ through evaporation, which eventually changes the resonant frequency, so it's no longer ideal!! So I bet temperature has an effect on how long they last!! Damn, I'm a GENIUS!! 🙊 Wait, _maybe_ I'm a genius... (don't know if I'm right yet lol)
Might you be expanding the water vapor layer around the drop rather than reducing air gap when reducing pressure? The diffuse surface becomes more diffuse as the vapor layer grows at lower atmospheric pressure. Both surfaces grow together by diffuseness of their air liquid interface. At low enough pressure in the vacuum, it will boil. Coalescence might increase as boiling conditions develop. Why should soap reduce the surface tension and increase resistance to coalescence when a high surface tension stiffens the drop or stream.
I have seen the droplets form when flicking a half-empty coke bottle, but I wasn't sure if it was the added sugar that caused them to form. It might have been the additional CO2 in the bottle that allowed the droplets to last longer.
It would be interesting to see if increasing the atmosphere pressure could make it last longer. Don't know if you have a pressure pot with a clear lid
4:11 it's a good information
Time to get a pressure globe! 😊
i love your content! I do have a question, Is there a practical application for this effect?
If you build it, they will come
I've observed similar phenomena with liquid mercury. I'm wondering if it's the same effect and how differences in surface tension can affect other parameters.
so in ur vacuum pump expt u get beads when pressure is increasing but not when pressure decreasing? query is why that research article didn't specifically mention about "increasing pressure" condition but only "changing pressure"?
So would a good example of non coalescence be how oceans do not mix? Which further leads to questions like...does each ocean carry its own distinct vibration? Also, salinity and other contributing factors, but is this an example?
never fails to use the vacuum chamber
Its not reprlling itself- water doesnt conglomerate immediately in with other water when affected by gravity- its flow of water- which if you slow down youd see when water shot out in a stream eventually breaks. When you uave several streams its a transfer of the energy by inertia, transfer molecules and energy continuing the flow through each stream.
Me seeing the moving drops in the shower: MoOoOm ThErS BuGs iN mY sHoWeR
i discovered this effect as a kid with hot wax, i call these anti bubbles, it happens because of surface tension and difference in density from difference in temperature
Maybe experiment with low air pressure using the heated leidenfrost effect to see what comes about.
Ive always wondered why that happened in my shower sometimes!