Credit: UCSD

Researchers at the University of California San Diego built a tumbler and deposited different types and lengths of string into it 3000 times to see how knots formed. They didn't come up with results that were too surprising: the longer the string, the more likely it formed complex knots. The stiffer the string and the smaller the box, the less likely knots would form.

All this may make you wonder what some of those graduate students are doing with their time, or it may give you something to think about as you untangle this year's strings of Christmas lights while you're putting them away.

There's more on the research here. 

Posted by Dennis O'Brien at 7:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
                    

Bored at work? Type the word "science" into YouTube's search field and peruse the resulting list of videos. Amid the creation vs. evolution polemics and scenes from the 1985 nerds-do-good movie, Weird Science, some cool experiments pop up.

The video below, from the masters of chaos at the Center for Nonlinear Dynamics at the University of Texas in Austin, shows how thick fluids -- in this case, cornstarch and water -- can behave in strange ways. "Holes" and "fingers" form on the surface of the cornstarch.

This odd behavior is characteristic of non-Newtonian fluids, in which the fluid's thickness (viscosity) changes as the individual molecules of the fluid are put under stress.

Posted by Chris Emery at 10:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)