Professor Hertzberg’s note: Although there is little information reliably published on this common ‘science experiment’, this phenomenon is likely due to Marangoni (surface tension driven) flow. Food dye is a surfactant, which reduces surface tension, as does sugar from the dissolving candy coating. The circle geometry will reduce surface tension around the inner ring of Skittles more than around the outside. Higher surface tension in the undyed center draws the dyed fluid in, maintaining radial symmetry. (Jan 21, 2019)
Skittles in Water: Team Third // Matthew Finney
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Flow Vis Guidebook
- Introduction to the Guidebook
- Overview 1: Phenomena. Why Does It Look Like That?
- Overview 2: Visualization Techniques
- Overview 3: Lighting
- Overview 4 - Photography A: Composition and Studio Workflow
- Overview 4 - Photography B: Cameras
- Overview 4 - Photography C: Lenses - Focal Length
- Overview 4 - Photography C: Lenses - Aperture and DOF
- Overview 4: Photography D: Exposure
- Overview 4 - Photography E - Resolution
- Overview 5 - Post-Processing
- Clouds 1: Names
- Clouds 2: Why Are There Clouds? Lift Mechanism 1: Instability
- Clouds 3: Skew - T and Instability
- Clouds 4: Clouds in Unstable Atmosphere
- Clouds 5: Lift Mechanism 2 - Orographics
- Clouds 6: Lift Mechanism 3 - Weather Systems
- Boundary Techniques - Introduction
- Dye Techniques 1 - Do Not Disturb
- Dye Techniques 2 - High Visibility
- Dye Techniques 3 - Light Emitting Fluids
- Refractive Index Techniques 1: Liquid Surfaces
- Refractive Index Techniques 2: Shadowgraphy and Schlieren
- Particle Physics: Flow and Light
- Particles 2: Aerosols
- Particles 3: In Water - Under Construction
- Art and Science
- TOC and Zotpress test
- Photons, Wavelength and Color
11 Comments. Leave new
Cool video! Did you specifically choose this many colors of skittles?
The funny background music fits the video pretty well. And the symmetrical linse forwards the center is perfect
The music is soooo cool. Nice editing on the video.
The music goes with the colorful images very well. Very playful. Nice symmetry and orientation of the Skittles.
This is a very simple set up, which makes it easy to understand and it looks great! The choice of music was great.
The music is very funny in combination with the visuals. I like the streams of the colors as they move toward the center. It looks like there is some glare from the lighting but I’m not sure how easily this could be avoided in the future.
Love the diffusion of the skittles colors and its mixture at the end of the timelapse. Very cool imagery!
I like the video a lot, especially when all the lines meet, it creates a bit of an illusion that a tunnel is forming and turning abruptly.
Very nice image. I really like that you decided to explore this experiment. I’ve seen many images of this but this is a great one! Nice!
Cool idea! The colors are great. This is a great example of something I have seen for years, but never thought to capture like this. Great funky vibe.
This does a great job of having nearly perfectly symmetrical lines towards the center!