Recipe for Making Symetrical Holes in Water

scottZed writes "Danish researchers found a simple way to make curiously shaped air holes in a bucket of water. Simply rig the bucket to have a spinning plate at the bottom, and depending on the speed, you can get an ellipse, three-sided star, square, pentagon, or hexagon. The effect may help explain such shapes seen in atmospheric disturbances on Earth and other planets. One practical use: really trippy washing machines."

Interesting

[Anonymous Coward]

Aliens obviously use the plate to transmit geometrical patterns in an effort to contact us. This proves it beyond all doubt.

Re:Interesting

[jginspace]

Aliens obviously use the plate to transmit geometrical patterns in an effort to contact us.

I doubt they'd resort to those means. I'm sure they know that Skype has just introduced free calls to land lines and mobiles in the US and Canada until the end of the year: http://www.skype.com/company/news/2006/skype_freec alling.html [skype.com]

TFSummary says "Three-sided star..."

[Khyber]

I say "Triangle"

Practical

[suv4x4]

One practical use: really trippy washing machines

practical

adj 1: concerned with actual use or practice; 2: guided by practical experience and observation rather than theory; 3: being actually such in almost every respect; 4: having or put to a practical purpose or use;

Pedantic

[Anonymous Coward]

pedantic

adj 1: Like a pedant, overly concerned with formal rules and trivial points of learning; 2: Being showy of one's knowledge, often in a boring manner; 3: Often used to describe a person who emphasizes their knowledge through the use of vocabulary; 4: Being finicky or picky with language.

Re:Wow

[fish waffle]

seriously, what if in the ocean the waterflow is spinning very hard itself under certain conditions, wouldn't that be a possible explanation for the disappearances in the Bermuda Triangle?

Yes, that's right. A suitably airplane-shaped hole would indeed allow an airplane to fall to the bottom of the ocean without getting wet, nicely and logically accounting for its sudden and complete disappearance. Similarly, holes isomorphic to boats and drowning people would account for those inexplicable losses.

Oh, wait, Bermuda triangle---you probably meant a triangular hole. No, sorry, that's just stupid.

Re:Pedantic

[suv4x4]

pedantic

adj 1: Like a pedant, overly concerned with formal rules and trivial points of learning; 2: Being showy of one's knowledge, often in a boring manner; 3: Often used to describe a person who emphasizes their knowledge through the use of vocabulary; 4: Being finicky or picky with language.

joke: n. 1. Something said or done to evoke laughter or amusement, especially an amusing story with a punch line. 2. A mischievous trick; a prank. 3. An amusing or ludicrous incident or situation.

Re:Sloppy reporting.

[finity]

I've never considered /. "the best in science journalism," and think you should think hard about life, the universe and everything if you do. It's more like a club where everyone is invited to throw shit at a wall and everyone can see it. Sometimes it's good shit, and sometimes it stinks. This is interesting shit, multicolored maybe...

Re:Just a resonance?

[binarybum]

yes and don't forget that Ima Bohr, Whadda Bohr, and Yura Bohr all founded the Institute of Neutrino Generation - Commonly referred to as Bohr-ING.

What they didn't show this time!

[Anonymous Coward]

When the dutch scientists spun the bucket ever faster, the shapes became even more interesting. It's a pity they were left out of the article. View them here:
http://www.craigslist.org/sby/tls/163096693.html [craigslist.org]

~those crazy dutch scientists! what will the think of next!

The most amazing information on this article

[layer3switch]

"Harry Swinney, a specialist in pattern-forming fluid flows at the University of Texas at Austin, says the new observation is roughly in line with what one might expect."

Wahhh~? Specialist in pattern-forming fluid flows at University of Texas at Austin? Heck I hope Mr. Swinney's parents didn't flush their saving down the toilet on his college education... oops, I mean, symetrically pattern-forming spiral downward flowing. ...yeah... the technical term.

Re:A guess... Re:Sloppy reporting.

[ArsenneLupin]

Venturing a guess that the speed that the false bottom is rotating at is related to the velocity that a vibration propagates through water, and the shapes are the result of resonance with the 'corners' nodes, and the edges antinodes.

Reminds me of an old joke:

Q: How do you drive a Belgian nuts?
A: You put him into a circular room, and tell him there are fries in the corner.

Re:Pedantic

[Anonymous Coward]

No entry found for karma whore.

Drat.

Those people aren't "researchers"...

[aws910]

They're stoners. whoaaaa....

Re:Pedantic

[earthbound kid]

pedantic

adj 1: Like a pedant, overly concerned with formal rules and trivial points of learning; 2: Being showy of one's knowledge, often in a boring manner; 3: Often used to describe a person who emphasizes their knowledge through the use of vocabulary; 4: Being finicky or picky with language.

joke: n. 1. Something said or done to evoke laughter or amusement, especially an amusing story with a punch line. 2. A mischievous trick; a prank. 3. An amusing or ludicrous incident or situation.

recursion: n. Mathematics.
      1. An expression, such as a polynomial, each term of which is determined by application of a formula to preceding terms.
      2. A formula that generates the successive terms of a recursion.

Re:Computing Speed?

[NormalVisual]

Sure you can - just look under /usr/src/linux-2.6.16/arch/h20 in your favorite distro.