Event

What Lies Beneath: Fluid/Solid Interactions from Liquid Drops to Floating Ice

Natural phenomena such as the coalescence of liquid drops or the collision of solid grains are of fundamental importance for nearly all the physical sciences and applied mathematics. Although processes such as these control the evolution and dynamics of systems on much larger scales, their individual details are often poorly understood. In this talk I will review our recent experiments that probe the mechanics of fluid and solid interfaces in a variety of manifestations.  These include studies of drop coalescence, clustering in inelastic gases, the levitation of a liquid drop above a hot surface and the earthquake generated by a capsizing iceberg. Although seemingly distinct, these examples will highlight the role of precision laboratory measurements in shaping our understanding of nonequilibrium physical processes.