Fluid Dynamics — Posts

26 posts on "Fluid Dynamics" by Shlomo Strauss — bilingual writing on technology, science, and business.

• Supercritical fluids and the future of geothermal energy — Advanced electromagnetic drilling aims to reach deep supercritical fluids, potentially providing limitless geothermal energy for the AI revolution.
• Why rocket explosions on the launch pad keep happening — From cryogenic fuel physics to the New Glenn explosion, this piece explains the chain of failure modes that make every successful launch an engineering…
• Propeller Physics: From Mars Drones to Quiet Laptops — How atmospheric density and the speed of sound shape propeller design, from NASA's Mars drones to the silent cooling fans in laptop computers.
• The engineering behind the B-2 bomber's stealth and endurance — From its radar-absorbing iron-powder coating to a laser that detects contrail formation, this post breaks down the stealth and aerodynamic engineering of…
• MIRV missiles: the Cold War technology now launching commercial — A clear breakdown of how MIRV warheads actually work, why Iran's cluster munitions fall far short, and what links them to SpaceX's multi-satellite…
• Iron Beam: the engineering behind Israel's high-power laser defense — From ytterbium fiber bundles to real-time atmospheric correction, a clear-eyed look at how Iron Beam combines dozens of lasers into a single 100-kilowatt…
• The physics of bungee cords, and why summer jumps feel better — From vulcanized natural rubber to the Gough-Joule effect, this piece explains the material science that makes a modern bungee cord safe — and why cold…
• How supersonic jet engines could power AI data centers — Boom is adapting its supersonic jet engine to generate electricity for data centers, potentially eliminating the water-cooling workaround that limits…
• How salt kills living cells, and the statistics behind osmosis — A concise explanation of osmosis, why high salt concentration outside a cell causes its death, and how certain organisms survive in extreme saline…
• Laminar flow and the Reynolds number: the physics behind a tap that — A look at laminar versus turbulent flow, the dimensionless Reynolds number that marks the boundary between them, and why it matters in pipelines, blood…
• How FPSO platforms use hydrostatics and electrostatics to process oil — A look at how FPSO vessels exploit hydrostatic pressure, gravity separation, and electrostatic fields to extract, process, and store crude oil far…
• The world's smallest artificial heart saved a toddler's life — An 11-gram titanium artificial heart implanted in a 16-month-old in 2012 kept him alive for 13 days, and the continuous-flow technology behind its…
• The ring-wing aircraft and the physics of wingless edges — Wingtip vortices waste up to 40% of an aircraft's energy, and Lockheed's ring-wing concept offers a structural solution rooted in basic physics.
• Adiabatic compression: how squeezing air starts fires and shapes the — From diesel engines to alpine winds and collapsing stars, this piece explains how the ideal gas law links volume, pressure, and temperature in surprising…
• Cherenkov radiation: when particles outrun light in water — A clear explanation of why nuclear reactor cores glow blue, and how the same physics underlies ship wakes and sonic booms.
• Soap bubbles, surface tension and Plateau's laws: the physics of — From the Laplace equation to Plateau's 120-degree rule, this post explains how surface tension and energy minimization shape soap bubbles, honeycombs, and
• Sound weapons in Serbia: the wave physics behind a crowd's sudden — An explanation of how phased speaker arrays use constructive interference to produce dangerously intense sound, illustrated by reported use against…
• The physics of tornadoes: vortices, water vapor, and traffic lanes — A clear explanation of how vortices form, what turns them into tornadoes, and why the inner lane of a roundabout gets you around faster.
• How water at 60,000 PSI cuts through steel like butter — Using Pascal's and Bernoulli's laws together, a thin water jet reaches 2.5 times the speed of sound — enough to slice through steel with remarkable…
• The triple point: where water boils and freezes at once — An explanation of water's triple point — the precise temperature and pressure at which all three phases coexist — and what it has to do with pressure…
• The vapor cloud behind a supersonic jet: Prandtl-Glauert and — Flight near Mach 1 produces two unrelated phenomena — a sonic boom and a condensation cloud — and this post explains the physics behind each.
• The cloud chamber: tracing radioactive particles through — A clear breakdown of how Wilson's cloud chamber uses supercooled vapor and ionization to make radioactive particle tracks visible and measurable.
• The Leidenfrost effect: when liquid hovers above a hot surface — A thin vapor layer can prevent liquid from ever touching a superheated surface, with real consequences for nuclear cooling and advanced materials research.
• Why geysers erupt: atmospheric pressure and the boiling point — A concise physics explainer on how atmospheric pressure determines water's boiling point, and how that same principle drives the cyclic eruption of…
• Why a spinning apple hovers and then explodes: two physics principles — A levitating apple that suddenly bursts apart demonstrates how the Coandă effect spins an object to the point where centrifugal force tears it to pieces.
• Why the bottom of a frozen lake stays at exactly 4 degrees Celsius — Water's maximum density at 4°C drives the layered freezing and thawing cycle of lakes, keeping the bottom at that precise temperature all winter.