Our world is a huge scientific laboratory in which strange, delightful and frightening phenomena occur daily. Some of them even manage to capture on video. We present you the top 10 most amazing scientific and natural phenomena captured on camera.
10. Mirages
Despite the fact that the mirage looks like something mysterious and mystical, this is nothing more than an optical effect.
It occurs when there is a significant difference between density and temperature in different layers of air. Between these layers, light is reflected, and a kind of play arises between light and air.
The objects that appear before the eyes of those who observe the mirage actually exist. But the distance between them and the mirage itself can be very large. Their projection is transmitted by multiple refraction of light rays, if favorable conditions exist for this. That is, when the temperature near the earth's surface is significantly higher than the temperature in higher atmospheric layers.
9. Batavian tears (drops of Prince Rupert)
It is recommended to watch with Russian subtitles.
These tempered glass drops have fascinated scientists for centuries. Their manufacture was kept secret, and the properties seemed inexplicable.
Hit the Batavian tears with a hammer, and nothing will happen to them. But it is worth breaking off the tail of such a drop, as the entire glass structure shatters into the smallest pieces. There is reason to be confused for pundits.
Almost 400 years have passed since the drops of Prince Rupert began to attract the attention of the scientific community, and modern scientists, armed with high-speed cameras, were finally able to see how these glass "tears" explode.
When the molten Batavian tear is lowered into the water, its outer layer becomes solid, while inside the glass remains in the molten state. When it cools, it contracts in volume and creates a strong structure, making the droplet head incredibly resistant to damage. But if you break off the weak tail, the stress disappears, which will lead to rupture of the structure of the entire drop.
The shock wave that can be seen in the video goes from the tail to the head of the drop at a speed of about 1.6 kilometers per second.
8. Superfluidity
When you vigorously stir the liquid in a mug (such as coffee), you can get a swirling vortex. But within a few seconds, the friction between the fluid particles will stop this flow. There is no friction in a superfluid. So, the superfluid substance mixed in the cup will continue to rotate forever. Such is the strange world of superfluidity.
The strangest superfluidity property? This fluid can leak out from almost any container, because the lack of viscosity allows it to pass through microscopic cracks without friction.
For those who want to play with superfluid, there is bad news. Not all chemicals can become superfluid. In addition, this requires very low temperatures. The most famous of the substances capable of superfluidity is helium.
7. Volcanic lightning
The first written mention of volcanic lightning was left to us by Pliny the Younger. It was associated with the eruption of the volcano Vesuvius in 79 AD
This bewitching natural phenomenon appears during a volcanic eruption due to a collision between gas and ash released into the atmosphere. It occurs much less frequently than the eruption itself, and catching it on camera is a great success.
6. soaring frog
Some scientific studies first make people laugh and then think. This happened with the experience for which its author Andrei Geim (by the way, the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2010) received the Shnobel Prize in 2000.
Here's how the essence of the experience of colleague Game Michael Berry explained. “It's amazing for the first time to look at a frog soaring in the air despite gravity. The forces of magnetism hold her. The source of power is a powerful electromagnet. He is able to push the frog up, because the frog is also a magnet, albeit a weak one. By its nature, a frog cannot be a magnet, but it is magnetized by the field of an electromagnet - this is called "induced diamagnetism."
Theoretically, a person can also be subjected to magnetic levitation, but a sufficiently large field will be required, but this has not yet been achieved by scientists.
5. Moving light
While light is technically the only thing we see, its movement cannot be seen with the naked eye.
However, using a camera capable of taking 1 trillion frames per second, scientists were able to create a video of light moving through everyday objects, such as apples and a bottle. And with a camera capable of taking 10 trillion frames per second, they can follow the movement of a single pulse of light instead of repeating the experiment for each frame.
4. Norwegian spiral anomaly
The spiraling anomaly seen by thousands of Norwegian people on December 9, 2009 fell into the top five amazing scientific phenomena captured on video.
She gave rise to many guesses. People talked about the approach of Doomsday, the beginning of an alien invasion, and black holes caused by the hadron collider. However, a completely “earthly” explanation was quickly found for the occurrence of a spiral anomaly. It consists in a technical malfunction during the launch of the RSM-56 Bulava missile launched on December 9 from the board of the Russian submarine cruiser Dmitry Donskoy located in the White Sea.
The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation reported the failure, and based on this coincidence, a version was put forward about the connection between the launch of a rocket and the appearance of such a bewitching and frightening phenomenon.
3. Charged Particle Tracker
After the discovery of radioactivity, people began to look for ways to observe radiation in order to better understand this phenomenon. One of the earliest and still used methods for the visual study of nuclear radiation and cosmic rays is the Wilson chamber.
The principle of its operation is that supersaturated vapors of water, ether or alcohol will condense around ions. When a radioactive particle passes through the chamber, it leaves an ion trail. As the vapor condenses on them, you can directly observe the path that the particle has traveled.
Today, Wilson cameras are used to monitor various types of radiation. Alpha particles leave short, thick lines, while beta particles have a longer and thinner track.
2. Laminar flow
Can liquids placed in each other not mix? If we are talking, for example, about pomegranate juice and water, then it is unlikely. But it is possible if you use colored corn syrup, as in the video. This is due to the special properties of the syrup as a liquid, as well as laminar flow.
Laminar flow is a fluid flow in which the layers tend to move in the same direction with each other, without mixing.
The liquid used in the video is so thick and viscous that the process of particle diffusion does not go on in it. The mixture is slowly mixed, so that it does not cause turbulence, due to which the color dyes could mix.
In the middle of the video, it seems that the colors are mixing because light passes through layers that contain individual dyes. However, the slow reversal of mixing brings the dyes back to their original position.
1. Cherenkov radiation (or the Vavilov-Cherenkov effect)
At school, we are taught that nothing moves faster than the speed of light. Indeed, the speed of light seems to be the fastest Flash in this universe. With one caveat: while we are talking about the speed of light in a vacuum.
When light enters any transparent medium, it slows down. This is due to the electronic component of the electromagnetic waves of light interacting with the wave properties of electrons in the medium.
It turns out that many objects can move faster than this new, slower speed of light. If a charged particle enters water at 99 percent of the speed of light in a vacuum, then it will be able to overtake light, which moves in water only 75 percent of its speed in a vacuum.
The Vavilov-Cherenkov effect is caused by the emission of a particle moving in its medium faster than the speed of light. And we can really see how this happens.
