Physics in Pictures by Topic
Force & Motion
Bouncing a Stream: The Kaye Effect
The non-Newtonian properties of liquid soap and shampoo fluid let them "bounce" as a stream. Try it at home!
Bursting a Different Kind of Bubble
The interplay of surface tension and evaporation leads to some spectacular fluid dynamics!
Ice Slips Through Water
A layer of meltwater keeps ice moving through fluid with minimal turbulence.
Virus Microscopy
An atomic force microscopy (AFM) scan reveals several hundred tobacco mosaic virus particles.
Fractal Globule
Experimental evidence suggests that the human genome may bundle into these unknotted fractal globules.
Stream Network Branching
Ever wonder how streams form? Physicists are using models to better understand the branching of streams.
Bouncing Ball
The simple act of bouncing a ball may not conjure up feelings of physics, but there is more physics going on than meets the eye. Tags: Force and Motion
Liquid Art
These images captured the moment streams of liquid collide, bending the streams and forming beautiful images.
Berliner Helicopter
What looks like a unique airplane was actually the first helicopter to make a controlled flight.
Smoke Rings in Water
A smoke-ring flow pattern - or vortex ring--can develop, pinch-off, and be regenerated, all without forces, when the flow is driven by chemical reactions.
LED Hula Hoopers and Fire Hoopers Show Physics in a Whole New Light
What does dancing have to do with physics? One photographer uses his understanding of light and technology to capture fire dancing and hula hooping, which inadvertently reveal different forces in physics and the nature of light.
Relativity Train
This train has endured space and time to teach physics to those wandering through the Bolivian desert.
A New Twist
The frictionless flow of atoms within solid helium may be confined to the axis of a screw dislocation, a spiral defect like the one in this crystal of silicon carbide.
Molecular Motion
The scanning tunneling microscope (STM) can make impressive images of single atoms and molecules on surfaces; now it has been used to measure a molecule's internal motion.
