This morning, I witnessed an amazing display of fluid dynamics that could probably not be repeated if I tried.
As I was pouring milk on my cornflakes, the milk landed in a bowl-shaped flake, and reversed the flow of the milk up, out of the bowl, and all over the counter and floor, in such a spectacular cascade that none was making it into the bowl.
Yeah, that's the whole story. Sorry if you were expecting more.
Maybe this wouldn't have happened if those flakes had been frosted, a word which here means "coated with sugary goodness." Or maybe it would have been magnified, thereby launching the milk up to the ceiling.
In either case, it would have tasted better...
Posted by: phydeaux on October 17, 2003 11:41 AMAs someone who's probably had one bowl of cereal for every day of his 24 years, I can say this happens about once or twice a year. It sucks too. All that clean up and other stuff.
"Oh I forgot to tell you. Don't cross the milk streams."
"Why not?"
"It. Would be bad."
You have to take into account the non-Newtonian nature of the milk, and its surface tension as major components of its reaction to converting potential energy. Besides, the collision between the milk flow and the flake was obviously a, well, flake, as in this case was obviously highly conservative.
Posted by: Camilo on October 22, 2003 09:28 AM