Chapter 2:

Racing on the Ceiling, Swimming Through Syrup

To access the pdf file for all the video links and journal citations for the items in the book, click on the pdf icon for "Chapter References & Comments” at the top of the page, next to Armando Armadillo. (Go to www.Adobe.com for a free pdf reader.) To access the updates and new items (not in the book), click on any "update" or "new" in the following list.

• 2.1 Race cars on the ceiling          update Sep 2006  Oct 2011
• 2.2 Slipstreaming and drafting
• 2.3 Aerodynamics of passing trains   update Dec 2008
• 2.4 Collapse of the old Tacoma Narrows Bridge update Sep 2006
• 2.5 Aerodynamics of buildings
• 2.6 Kites
• 2.7 Ski jumping   update Feb 2008
• 2.8 Speed of a downhill skier
• 2.9 Boomerangs
• 2.10 Throwing cards   update June 2010
• 2.11 Seeds that spin update Oct 2010
• 2.12 Flying snakes
• 2.13 Air drag on tennis balls
• 2.14 Veering a football around a defensive wall   update Apr 2011
• 2.15 Golf-ball aerodynamics      update Dec 2006
• 2.16 Baseball aerodynamics
• 2.17 Cricket aerodynamics
• 2.18 Birds flying in V formation   update Jun 2012
• 2.19 Speed swimming in syrup
• 2.20 Contrails
• 2.21 Inward flutter of a shower curtain
• 2.22 Prairie dog and giant ant nests
• 2.23 Bathtub vortex
• 2.24 Vortex in a cup of coffee
• 2.25 Gathering of tealeaves, spinning of olives
• 2.26 Meandering rivers   update Nov 2006
• 2.27 Bird spinning in water
• 2.28 Water climbing a spinning egg
• 2.29 Circular water-flow pattern in a sink
• 2.30 Water level in canals
• 2.31 Solitary waves
• 2.32 Tidal bores
• 2.33 Tides
• 2.34 Tides in the Bay of Fundy
• 2.35 Dead water  update Jul 2009
• 2.36 Tornadoes   update Nov 2012
• 2.37 Short story: Looking up into a tornado
• 2.38 Waterspouts and funnel clouds
• 2.39 Dust devils, fog devils, and steam devils update Oct 2006  Apr 2007
• 2.40 Ring vortexes   update Sep 2010
• 2.41 Siphons and toilets   update Oct 2012
• 2.42 Lizards walking on water
• 2.43 Lead bar floating in a boat
• 2.44 Floating bars and open containers    update Aug 2008
• 2.45 Hole in a dam, ship in dry dock
• 2.46 g-LOC in pilots
• 2.47 Blood circulation in humans, giraffe, and tall dinosaurs
• 2.48 Did the sauropods swim?
• 2.49 Gastroliths in dinosaurs and crocodile
• 2.50 Coanda effect    update Sep 2008   Feb 2013
• 2.51 Teapot effect
• 2.52 Ascents after deep diving
• 2.53 Snorkeling by people and elephants     update Sep 2012
• 2.54 Escape from a submarine
• 2.55 Lake Nyos disaster
• 2.56 Short Story: House-hopping, and riding the skies in a lawn chair   update Jul 2007    Apr 2008
• 2.57 Flow of medieval cathedral window glass
• 2.58 Strange viscous fluids       update May 2007  Apr 2012
• 2.59 Soup reversal
• 2.60 Bouncing liquid stream
• 2.61 Rod-climbing fluids
• 2.62 Liquid rope coils
• 2.63 Water waves
• 2.64 Extreme and rogue waves
• 2.65 Waves turning to approach a beach
• 2.66 Waves passes through a narrow opening
• 2.67 Seiches and sloshes     update June 2008
• 2.68 Wakes of ducks and aircraft carriers
• 2.69 Surfing
• 2.70 Porpoise and dolphin motion
• 2.71 Edge waves
• 2.72 Beach cusps
• 2.73 Oil and waves   update Oct 2006
• 2.74 Floating drops   update Jul 2011
• 2.75 Splashing drops   update Apr 2011
• 2.76 Bubbles in soda, beer, and champagne   update Jan 2007  Jun 2012  Nov 2012
• 2.77 Soap bubbles and beer foams
• 2.78 Bursting bubbles
• 2.79 Whales and bubble nets
• 2.80 Water striders
• 2.81 Beading on rods and saliva threads
• 2.82 Rain harvesting by desert lizards
• 2.83 Prey harvesting by shorebirds
• 2.84 Drops and liquid films on solid surfaces
• 2.85 Breakfast cereal pulling together   update Sep 2006
• 2.86 Sandcastles
• 2.87 Appearance of bad coffee
• 2.88 Tears of wine and other liquid surface play
• 2.89 Tia Maria worm-like patterns   update Dec 2009
• 2.90 Patterns in hot coffee and other fluids
• 2.91 Patterns in coffee stains    update  Oct 2008
• 2.92 Breath figures
• 2.93 Lotus effect
• 2.94 Aphids and liquid marbles
• 2.95 Paint brushes, wet hair, and dunking cookies
• 2.96 Deep-fat frying of potatoes
• 2.97 Ducks stay dry
• 2.98 Cut potatoes, bird droppings, and a car
• 2.99 Catapulting mushroom spores
• 2.100 Waves on a falling stream
• 2.101 Water bells, sheets, and chains
• 2.102 Stepping on a wet beach and into quicksand  update May 2011  Sep 2011   Jun 2011
• 2.103 Collapse of buildings and a freeway  
• 2.104 Short story: Quicksand effect with grain
• 2.105 Pedestrian flow and escape panic
• 2.106 Sand piles and self-organizing flow
• 2.107 Flows in hourglasses and silos
• 2.108 Brazil-nut effect and oscillating powders    update Jul 2012
• 2.109 Avalanche balloon  
• 2.110 Sand ripples and movement
• 2.111 Sand dunes
• 2.112 Yardangs and other sand cuttings
• 2.113 Snow fences and wind deposits
• 2.114 Snow avalanches
• 2.115 Long-runout landslides
• 2.116 Rockfalls
• 2.117 Flapping flags and ribbons
• 2.118 Fluttering fountains and pounding waterfalls
• 2.119 Pulsating fountains
• 2.120 Pouring: inverted glass, yard-of-ale  update Oct 2007  Nov 08  Apr 09   Sep 09   Feb 10
• 2.121 Dripping
• 2.122 Soap bubble shapes
• 2.123 Bubble paths
• 2.124 Antibubbles
• 2.125 Lifting rice with a rod   update Dec 2010
• 2.126 Throwing a discus
• 2.127 Javelin throw
• 2.128 Two boats drawn together
• 2.129 Aerodynamics of cables and lines
• 2.130 Surf skimmer
• 2.131 Buoyancy while turning a corner
• 2.132 Wave reflection by sand bars
• 2.133 Rain and waves
• 2.134 A salt oscillator
• 2.135 Salt fingers and a salt fountain
• 2.136 Lifting water through tall trees
• 2.137 Windrows on water
• 2.138 Cloud streets and forest-fire strips
• 2.139 Packing M&Ms
• 2.140 A pile of apples    update Mar 2007
• 2.141 Powder patterns   update June 2011
• 2.142 A hydraulic oscillator
• 2.143 Oil blobs moving through glycerin
• 2.144 Ball in an air stream  update July 2007
• 2.145 Flettner’s ship
• 2.146 Strait of Gibraltar, Strait of Messina, Strait of Sicily
• 2.147 Granular splashing
• 2.148 Slight ridge on moving water
• 2.149 Meandering thin streams
• 2.150 Shaver clippings and camphor boats on water  update Oct 2011
• 2.151 Oil stains on a road
• 2.152 Patterns of water drops onto glycerin
• 2.153 Olive-oil fingers on talc-covered water
• 2.154 Chicken-fat oscillator    Click on new to get the following new items (not in the book)
• 2.155 Shooting yourself down       Aug 2006
• 2.156 Katrina damage to New Orleans    Dec 2006
• 2.157 Lifting a drinking glass from a tabletop wet with whiskey     Mar 2007
• 2.158 Being sucked through an airplane window    Aug 2007
• 2.159 Patterns in draining honey and yogurt  Sep 2007
• 2.160 Geoffrey Pyke and the bergship of World War II   Feb 2008
• 2.161 Sailboats    Apr 2008
• 2.162 Bar (pub) trick --- escape from a cellophane pocket  May 2008
• 2.163 Geysers exploding from rain runoff shafts   June 2008
• 2.164 Water and block puzzle    Aug 2008
• 2.165 Diffraction as seen from orbit    Aug 2008
• 2.166 "The Birds" and flocking   Aug 2009
• 2.167 Pub trick --- 1000 drops from an empty bottle  June 2010
• 2.168 Pub trick ---Vortex in a bottle and the vortex beer bottle  Aug 2010
• 2.169 Liquid mountaineering and catching a melon with your face Oct 2010
• 2.170 Liquid origami and the parchment paper effect  Jan 2011
• 2.171 Pub trick --- making straw paper stretch and crawl  Jan 2011
• 2.172 Pub trick --- diving ketchup packet Feb 2011
• 2.173 Pub trick --- toothpick design trick  May 2011
• 2.174 Pub trick --- inflating a long sandwich bag  June 2011
• 2.175 Pushing a glass into sand  June 2011
• 2.176 Pub trick --- egg tricks   Jul 2011
• 2.177 Pub trick --- raisin in champagne trick  Aug 2011
• 2.178 Pub trick --- oil blobs in water   Jan 2012
• 2.179 Pub trick --- piercing a plastic bag of water with a pencil    Mar 2012
• 2.180 Pub trick --- bottle cap blown into bottle   Apr 2012
• 2.181 Fake video --- free standing water   Apr 2012
• 2.182 Controlled breach of the Condit Dam    Aug 2012
• 2.183 Pub trick --- separating two pub glasses    Aug 2012
• 2.184 Pervious concrete     Sep 2012
• 2.185 Fly in gun blast      Nov 2012
• 2.186 Attack of the tumbleweeds     Jan 2013
• 2.187 Pub trick --- pouring a rainbow   Jan 2013
• 2.188 Poured art     Feb 2013
• 2.189 Escape from a sinking car    Apr 2013