Author: Charles Keely
Project: Get Wet
ATLS 4151-001
September 30th, 2018
For my first individual project, I conducted the classic “milk, food coloring, and dish soap” experiment, which is a simple, yet effective demonstration of the Marangoni effect. The “Get Wet” assignment was our first photography/video production and it also happened to be the first time that I had ever used a DSLR camera. At the time of the experiment, I was unfamiliar with many of the functionalities of video capture, including how to manually focus the camera. Despite my naivety, I was able to capture some interesting flow patterns with fairly decent focus. If one were to attempt the experiment themselves, I highly recommend using manual focus, as well as informing any participants about how to effectively stay outside of the frame. Although my friends Teli Stathopolous and Spencer Tyson were a great help while conducting the experiment, I did not properly inform them of a procedure that would completely take them out of the shot, so we had some minor issues with the shots.
The Marangoni effect displayed in this particular example is due to properties of surface tension between milk and dish soap. Dish soap has a lower surface tension than that of milk, and as dish soap is considered a surfactant, a substance which can modify the surface properties of a substance, it lowers the surface tension of the milk in the immediate area where it is dropped by dissolving the fat molecules of the milk (Buddies 2014). The surrounding milk, yet untouched by the dish soap, still has a higher surface tension than the soap. Because of this, the surrounding milk pulls on the low-surface-tension area of the milk/dish soap. This is why the dish soap spreads in all directions from the initial point of contact between the milk and dish soap.
The food coloring moves in the same direction as the milk which allows one to easily see the otherwise imperceptible movement of the milk. Since I conducted some experiments with multiple drops of soap hitting the milk at once, some abstractions occurred as the individual outward movements would collide, causing smaller versions of the greater Marangoni effect to appear all over the plate.
The video is composed of two separate experiments. Both experiments used the same materials: 2% milk, McCormick assorted food coloring, Dawn dish soap, and an 8 x 8 black plate. Both experiments were shot by a Nikon D3400 (which is a DSLR) with a Nikon 18-55 mm lens and an XIT telephoto lens add on. The shots were zoomed in at approximately 45 mm. The video was captured at 1080p at 60 fps.
In the first experiment, two drops of each color: red, yellow, green, and blue were dropped in the middle of the plate with milk. Then, a drop of dish soap was dropped on the area with the food coloring from about four inches above the plate from a q-tip. This resulted in a quite quick and abstract explosion of movement. This shot is the last shot shown in the video.
In the second experiment, two drops of yellow and red were placed near the bottom of the plate and two drops of blue and green were dropped near the top of the plate in parallel fashion. Then, two separate q-tips that were dunked in dish soap were plunged into the areas of the food coloring for about 10 seconds. This caused two separate Marangoni effects to occur and collide, causing several Marangoni flows to pop up in one great mixture.
In both videos, I sought to capture as much of the colors as I could, so I framed the video such that only the milk was visible. The lens was quite close to the object, around about a foot away. However, for the intro shot, I took a picture of the aftermath of the second experiment from above and animated the liquid area using a program called Fantamorph. The technique to create the animation is called the George Redhawk technique, and it takes advantage of the way that photo morphing programs work to create an infinite flow. The rest of the video was heavily edited in order to make the flow work with the music, both by using fast and slow motion as well as using purposeful cuts to take out any footage of mistakes that we made during the experiment.
The videos reveal the underlying complexity of the Marangoni effect, particularly in the collision experiment. I am quite pleased with how complex and abstract the flows ended up. However, I was slightly disappointed with the colors schemes that occurred during the experiments. If I were to repeat the experiment, I would experiment with making more visually pleasing color schemes because there was a lot of color clashing going on. Also, at the time of the video, I was unfamiliar with the manual focus which could have made the image far sharper had I known how to use it.
References
Science Buddies. “Surfactant Science: Make a Milk Rainbow.” Scientific American, 13 Mar. 2014, www.scientificamerican.com/article/surfactant-science-make-a-milk-rainbow/.
28 Comments. Leave new
I really like this video and the colors. Its kinda trippy in a way. I like how you decided to take the dish soap in milk idea to another level.
Awesome job combining music and fluid flow in your editing process. I love how the pace of the fluid flow works with the meter in the song you wrote. Also, I like the distinction between symmetrical and non symmetrical shots that gives a nice juxtaposition. Try using a steadier tripod to eliminate unintentional motion blur.
Definitely some great editing going on here and Im impressed with how well you were able to control the flow. At some points I think there were just a few two many colors going on and you got some pale browns happening.
It’s a fanatic video of the mysterious colors. The soap drop acts as the magic to converse the color
This is a cool video. I like that you filmed the flow and played the motion forward and backward. It helps me really see and think about whats happening. Great use of colors as well. I may try this outside, just to get better lighting in some of the shots.
Great Video! The angles demonstrate the physics wonderfully. I am really interested in how you managed to get the focus. This is really good!
I like how the motion of the dye is matched with the music. The flow of the dye is fun to watch as well since there is so much going on in the frame. The colors came out a little muddied in some of the shots since the dye is mixing together but I think that could be adjusted in post processing.
Great video. good job with filling the screen. defiantly worth a few watches .
The music fits well and gives the video a cool feeling. I like the contrast of red/darker colors on the bottom and blus/lighter colors at the top with interesting mixing at the center.
Really cool music! Love the vibe that makes the flow move to. The symmetry of the second shot comes out very nicely and the quick rewind is very cool.
I really like how you used different filters in your video. Very psychedelic! I also thought how you re-winded some of the video. The symmetry you achieved is very impressive.
Groovy jam! I like the shot with the red and blue meeting together, it’s cool to see them meet but not mix. Very well done!
Cool video. I really enjoyed the shots in reverse to let you see what’s going on from a different perspective. The colors are cool, great intro. The symmetry in one shot was really interesting. There’s a whole lot going on in this video, I like it.
I definitely like the different colors you used and the editing along with it. my only suggestion would be to use a tripod to reduce shakiness.
Great music choice to go along with the psychedelic videos. Multiple experiments keeps viewers interested. Contrasting colored but symmetrical, large blobs that are top-to-bottom is an extremely cool scene
The colors in the image are super nice. I like the dynamic motion of the liquid. It presents pretty well how the liquid merged together.
Loving the editing used here. The music added makes it feel really trippy and reminds me of Pink Floyd. I really appreciate how symmetric some of the shots are. Great job.
Nice video! Taking a video of this works out great and I really like how you rewinded the shot at the end so you could see the process in reverse. Really good production for your first time doing it.
This looks really cool! I ended up doing the same thing but just taking a photo. It was really interesting seeing the soap interact with the food coloring
Cool video. the physics of the fluid movements is so clear. Great work on choosing the colors. The underground lighting makes the colors more clear.
I like that you captured this with a video instead of a photo as you can really see the flow happening. Perhaps you could drop it or find a way to film that doesn’t show the containers as much
I really like the forwards and backwards playing that was done, it really shows the flow quite well and is extremely mesmerizing! I like how it only used the fluid flow in the frame and didn’t have any distracting background.
The music is awesome in this video. It definitely adds to the flow being displayed. Nice colors!
Trippy! Really like the close up imagery of the photo and the captured movement of the fluid repelling from the soap. The colors really pop out of the screen. The music definitely adds to the flow visualization.
This is super awesome – I love this video. It reminds me of something that would play at a grateful dead concert haha. The only thing that distracts me is seeing the qtips dipping into the liquid, but that could be a personal choice of choosing to show the process or only focusing on the result.
The music gives it kind of a trippy feel. Nice little experience watching the video. Captured the milk and food coloring well.
The colors in this video are very nice and create a very hypnotic effect throughout the video. The music in the background I feel bring out the effect of the mixing and helps to bring focus to the video.
I love the colors and I love that fact that it fills the entire screen. It makes it hard to tell what is going on and highlights the artistic nature of it. Very cool. You’ll have to show me how you did that.