Food dye drops in water exhibit surprisingly complex instabilities.

By Jason Brownstein for Spring 2014 Get Wet.
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Food dye drops in water exhibit surprisingly complex instabilities.

Food dye in water, rotated and mirrored, displays instability patterns and interpretable images.

Food dye falling through gently swirling water displays complex patterns due to the instabilities involved (viewed sideways).

Food dye in water forms complex patterns due to the Rayleigh Taylor instability.

Dense India ink falls through water, displaying the ‘umbrella’ instability.

A droplet of food dye falling in water develops a ‘bag’ or ‘umbrella’ instability.

Smoke shows the turbulent wake behind a horizontal cylinder in a fume hood.

Magnetically excited ferrofluid on a thin film of Windex.

Standing acoustic waves in a Rubens’ Tube drive flames of varying heights.

Standing acoustic waves in a Rubens’ Tube drive flames of varying heights.