Bubbles in water have been caught doing backflips for the first time

After colliding with a tilted wall, air bubbles in water execute a backflip and hit the wall for a second time because they get caught in their own wake. These acrobatics could be harnessed for cleaning

Physics



15 September 2022

Bubbles exhibit backflipping behavior when colliding tilted surfaces with low inclination angles

Bubbles exhibit backflipping behavior when colliding tilted surfaces

Alireza (Navid) Hooshanginejad

When they collide with a tilted surface in water, some air bubbles bounce away then reverse course and hit the surface again in a “backflipping” motion. These acrobatics are caused by the flow of fluid around a bubble and could potentially be harnessed for cleaning.

Alireza Hooshanginejad at Brown University in Rhode Island and his colleagues shot differently sized air bubbles in a tank of water towards a glass slide that was held at various angles between flat against the top of …

source: newscientist.com