Research duo discover why non-Newtonian fluids harden on impact
Thursday, July 12, 2012 - 08:30
in Physics & Chemistry
(Phys.org) -- Researchers and laymen alike know that some non-Newtonian fluids tend to harden quickly upon impact. Quicksand is a good example. If a person walks quickly, they wont sink. But why this happens has been somewhat of a mystery, though many in the science community have suspected it had something to do with energy being transferred to the walls of the container. New research finds thats not the case at all. Instead, after extensive testing and experimentation Scott Waitukaitis and Heinrich Jaeger of the University of Chicago have found, as they describe in their paper published in the journal Nature, that its because the particles suspended in the liquid temporarily mash together, creating a near solid.