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3. Finding Physics in Everyday Objects
1 year ago
The wrinkling in an elephant’s trunk and in billionth-of-a-meter nanotubes proceed from the same physical principles. The oscillations and flutters that agitate a piece of paper when you blow on it operate by mechanisms similar to those that caused an improperly designed bridge to tragically, and famously, collapse. Watch demonstrations by applied mathematician Lakshminarayanan Mahadevan, whose curiosity and analytical prowess combine to identify and then explain phenomena such as the vexing problem of folding up a map (to which nature has invented a brilliant solution). (via harvardmagazine.com)
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they are caused by positive pressure and negative pressure.
when you blow softly, you provide just enough pressure to support the paper.
when you blow hard, you are creating a negative pressure under the paper, allowing the higher pressure from above to press down on the paper. It then comes back up because your blowing again increases the pressure under the paper, because your breath has less places to go (blocked by the paper on the table).
And the cycle repeats itself.
It is simply a matter of: are you providing enough pressure to support it or to move the air out from under it?