This video shows that we can return a mixed fluid to its original state. They used corn syrup and dropped 3 drops of food dye, the syrup is then mixed slowly in an orderly fashion. We can see how the drops of food dye are moving as if they were flowing in different layers. However, when reversing the rotation, food dye returns to its original state. This is happening due to the high viscosity of the corn syrup, which leads to a low Reynold’s number (laminar flow). Viscous liquids have high friction which allows us to revert a fluid to its initial form. Also, as the person keeps rotating the handle, we get new colors because of the mixed food dye.

Original Author: John DeMoss and Kevin Cahill of the University of New Mexico.