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Non newtonian fluid


Momentumous

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index.php?action=dlattach;topic=6730.0;attach=6739;image

Sadly I still can't figure out how to embed a video and more likely than not no one will watch it if its a URL so a picture will have to do!

This odd goop is called non-newtonian fluid. A newtonian fluid has a stress vs strain curve that is linear and passes through the origin, showing it has a constant viscocity. With a non-netonian fluid, it follows no such rules, and it's viscocity can change depending on stress, strain, time, or all of the above.

A simple example is this oobleck seen above. Its a simple 1-part water 2-parts cornstarch mixture. If you try to make it, eventually the stirring becomes suspiciously more difficult. This is because once it's thoroughly mixed, it is a non-newtonian fluid, and the stress caused by your stirring makes it become temporarily solid.

Infact, this corn starch mixture becomes pretty easily stressed out. When you place the mixture on a subwoofer, the vibration from the sound waves are enough to stress it out, causing it to move and solidify in strange ways, as you can see in the picture above.

Origionally I was going to make a video on how to do such, but I have no cornstarch and still need to figure out how inserting a video works, so perhaps another blog!

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I forget where exactly I saw this, but I heard that some engineers created a solution to road pot-holes with a non-newtonian fluid such as this. They put the fluid in bags, and put a bag or two inside a pot-hole. Without pressure, the fluid in the bags formed to the shape of the pot-hole. Then, when cars drove over the patch, the substance hardened. I thought this was pretty cool.

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I forget where exactly I saw this, but I heard that some engineers created a solution to road pot-holes with a non-newtonian fluid such as this. They put the fluid in bags, and put a bag or two inside a pot-hole. Without pressure, the fluid in the bags formed to the shape of the pot-hole. Then, when cars drove over the patch, the substance hardened. I thought this was pretty cool.

Oh, I heard about that when visiting Case Western a little bit ago! A group of students thought that one up. The link below gives more info. Not bad for Undergrads ;)

http://www.changinggears.info/2012/04/16/undergrads-at-case-western-build-a-better-pothole-patch-score-one-for-midwest-innovation/

http://youtu.be/XrvzZewPUJA

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Hey did you know that if you add some oil to that mixture and heat it in the microwave in a plastic bag you've just made a softer form of plastic. You can shape it into whatever then let it harden. Sadly I don't remember the exact water cornstarch proportions.

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