Category: Booze
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I know why the phase-locked wineglass sings
Here’s a neat party trick to impress your friends. Rub your finger around the rim of a wineglass and friction causes it, and any liquid it contains, to oscillate. When this vibration produces an audible pure tone, the wine glass is said to “sing”. Now Ana Karina Ramos Musalem and pals at the Weizmann Institute…
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The latest social network: binge drinking
Binge drinking is “the rapid consumption of large amounts of alcohol, especially by young people, leading to serious anti-social and criminal behavior in urban centres,” say Paul Ormerod, an economist at Volterra Consulting in London, also linked to the University of Durham. Binge drinking is a growing problem in city centers in the UK, with…
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Fractal fingers and zero surface tension
Ah always thought a fingering instability was what happened after a misunderstanding on a first date. But apparently it’s also a hydrodynamic phenomenon, when one fluid displaces another. This kinda displacement is a complex process; so complex that in most cases it is mathematically intractable. Ya just gotta try it and see. However, one of…
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Quantum dilemmas
Ya wake up in the cells, your head a-boomin and a-thumpin. An officer helps loosen ya tongue, Guantamo style, and before ya even had breakfast, he’s a-shoutin and a-rantin for a confession. There’s even a deal on the table. Rat on ya buddy in the next cell and the judge’ll cutcha some slack. Keep schtum…
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Why does the wine glass sing?
Ah know ya’ll like a tipple or two. Who don’t? So ya’ll know how a-strokin and a-rubbin a wet finger on a wine glass can put some sounds up. Now Oleg “Chaser” Kirillov at Moscow State Lomonosov University says we ain’t got no ah-dear how this process of sound generation works. And to clarify things…