This image shows Rayleigh-Benard convection cells visualized by taking a long exposure image of flakes of aluminum in a 1mm deep layer of silicone oil! The oil is heated from a smooth bottom surface (whose smoothness gives way to the hexagonal shapes).
Image sourced from the NOAA page: https://psl.noaa.gov/outreach/education/science/convection/RBCells.html, which itself sourced the image from page 83 of Milton Van Dyke’s An Album of Fluid Motion (published by The Parabolic Press).
2 Comments. Leave new
Third Prize
Seeing hexagonal shapes in nature is always fun to see, and the fact that these particular ones have those spoke lines like in the eye because of the long exposure technique is fascinating as well.
First Prize: I am a big fan of the hexagon shape, it’s a really cool shape in my opinion, so to see it incorporated in fluid flow is neat.