How to see the invisible

Trace liquid flow lines in your own home lab!

Warn­ing! Only un­der adult su­per­vi­sion

Equip­ment

  • glyc­erin;
  • wa­ter;
  • emp­ty trans­par­ent bot­tle;
  • metal­lic col­orant – all com­po­nents can be found in the "Rheo­scop­ic liq­uid" kit from the MEL Sci­ence sub­scrip­tion.

Step-by-step in­struc­tions

Mix wa­ter and glyc­erin in a 1:1 ra­tio, add metal­lic dye, and stir. Ob­serve as the liq­uid swirls in in­tri­cate pat­terns!

Sci­en­tif­ic de­scrip­tion

By adding a metal­lic dye to the liq­uid, you cre­ate a sus­pen­sion and re­veal its flow lines! De­pend­ing on the vis­cos­i­ty and speed of the flu­id’s move­ment, its flow can be lam­i­nar or tur­bu­lent. Lam­i­nar flow di­vides liq­uid into non-mix­ing flows with­out the for­ma­tion of vor­tices. As it tran­si­tions into a tur­bu­lent flow, vor­tices form, which fa­cil­i­tate in­tense mix­ing of the liq­uid.

Cool ex­per­i­ments are wait­ing for you in your MEL Sci­ence sub­scrip­tion!

Try it