Case Western pothole patch - some updates

Source - link

We've been showing videos about the Case Western Reserve students who invented a better pothole patch for years in our summer camps and in our material science courses at Princeton.

I usually add the fact that most of those videos, however, are now a decade old, and I haven't seen the product being used. Thankfully one of my campers last summer took that as a challenge and went hunting for an update. 

Here's what he and I have been able to find...

• Feb 2017 - Cleveland.com - "It has been more than five years since Okoye and three other students created the product, which received entrepreneurship recognition in 2012. Okoye said the idea never died, but attending college and finding a job while refining the product and seeking funding, took time." 
• U-Patch Canada (YouTube) - 20 short, non-narrated test videos of the Thumper Pad in potholes, all from January 2018
• Yeu Patch (Facebook) - No new posts since Feb 2019
• KMBC.com - "KC uses thump pads as temporary fix to potholes" 
• KMBC.com - The same story as above but as video.

There are a bunch of other, similar stories from those time periods, but the websites that the company website that I found - http://yeupatchtechnologies.com/ - doesn't seem to be registered anymore.

Bizarre liquid jets explained - the Kaye effect

Hold on a second. I'll be right back after I grab a tray and a bottle of shampoo.

The streams of shampoo above shoot out from the pile of shampoo with nothing other than gravity and really thin streams falling from above.

Turns out it's because shampoo is sheer thinning (like ketchup is) but that shampoo makes the transition from high to low viscosity very quickly, quickly enough to create divots (as its viscosity decreases) in the accumulating pile but then become highly viscous and shoot off the other side of the 'ramp' that they've just created.

Who knew?

DEMO KIT 11 01 2013

If you're ever wondering what to get your friendly neighborhood Materials Witness blogger for his birthday (April 28th if you were curious), a demo kit of d3o would be the perfect gift.

Sadly, I haven't been able to find one on ebay, and the d3o website is less than helpful toward educators and students...

Due to an extremely high number of enquiries, we are unable to respond to requests from students, schools, or universities. We are also unable to supply samples of any D3O materials (or “goo”).

A bunch of d3o videos

I haven't the foggiest idea what you need to do to be safe on a motorcycle. I guess my first step would be to not get on the motorcycle, but that's your call.

The above video goes through the advantages and disadvantages of the various materials used to provide protection in a motorcycle jacket: silicon (1:09), thermoplastics (1:40 - though the description of thermoplastics leaves something to be desired), foam (2:32), and viscoelastic materials (3:27) like d3o (SAS Tec, TFArmor, APS Air [though I think that's basically an airbag]- other brands he mentions).

The host's description of d3o is, however, outstanding. He does mention 'grade three' which is a giveaway that he's Canadian.

Non-Newtonian Ball of Concrete

First off, I think that's a ball of cement not concrete, but I'm just saying that because of all the cool stuff I've learned about ceramics and composites in my material science learning.

I'd heard somewhere along the way that cement can - in the right mixtures and proportions - form a non-Newtonian fluid, but I've never played around enough to see what that mixture is.

By the way, in researching this post (seriously, I do research - it's how I learn stuff) I came across what looks to be a mildly scholarly (but still mostly understandable to me) chapter on non-Newtonian fluids  - what they are, how they work, application of them, examples - that I need to read through in more depth. Check it out yourself if you're so inclined.

10 mind-blowing man-made materials

Admit it, you're every bit as susceptible to list videos (and internet posts) as I am.

We all must be, otherwise we'd probably lose a third of the internet and be left with just cat videos and pictures of pretty people.

This video is severely lacking in detail for each of the "ten mind-blowing man-made materials", but it would be a great starting point to get your class thinking about the Materials Choice Award.

What happened to this car?

I can answer that question: something bad happened to that car.

See? Genius.

Check out this nicely animated video explaining the process of liquifaction which turns quicksand into a liquid, allowing things like cars, people, small pirate villages to sink into them.

It's sort of the opposite of what oobleck does.

Playing with Polymers: make slime at home

Maki Naro is a webcomic artist with a blog on Popular Science's website. On the blog recently, Maki posted these instructions and explanations for making 'slime' from Elmer's glue, borax, water, and food coloring. (They're available in higher resolution over there.)

The instructions aren't anything revolutionary, nor is the explanation, but I look at this like Greg Louganis who always included an incredibly simple dive in his competition routine. Yes, the degree of difficulty was low, but he executed it perfectly.

Nice job, Maki.

Why is ketchup so hard to pour? - George Zaidan

This is such a cute video The animation is entertaining, and the personification of ketchup is endearing.

I wonder if the 'squished into little ellipses' analogy is at all correct.

Liquids are totally weird, man.

How to make Magic Mud

Yes, making your own 'Magic Mud' instead of just buying cornstarch and mixing it up sounds like a whole lot of extra work.

Yes, it's certainly cheaper to buy a box of conrstarch than to buy a whole five-pound bag of spuds.

But think of all the hasbrowns you can make (in case there isn't a Waffle House close enough to where you live.)

Honestly, though, I might offer this up as an extra credit opportunity for some of my students.

Can you walk on water? (Non-Newtonian Fluid Pool)

Oobleck knows to nationality.

These Malaysian folks mixed up 8000 (or so) liters of cornstarch and water and had a blast with it.

There's really nothing revolutionary to see here, but there's a lot of fun in watching the folks try to ride a bicycle, dance, flip, do a jig on the surface.

Miracle mix looks like liquid but shatters like glass

This video - from a New Scientist article - shows the impact of a "300-gram, tungsten carbide rod into the [thin film of] oobleck" at a drastically slowed-down pace. The first thirty-six seconds of the video show 250 milliseconds of real-time action. What's important is that the impact creates a series of sharp cracks - like glass shattering - before the oobleck returns to 'liquid' and 'heals' itself.

How slow can you flow?

Sci-ence.org strikes again!

Cornstarch and water - non-Newtonian...

Catsup...ketchup (you say potato, I say tomoato, let's call the whole thing a vegetable)...non-Newtonian fluid...

PVA slime...non-Newtonia fluid...

Silly Putty...non-Newtonian fluid...

Chilled caramel topping...non-Newtonian fluid...

Apparently pitch...non-Newtonian fluid...

I've tried the whole "let's put the Silly Putty in a funnel and see what it does," but I've not yet spent eighty-six years watching it drip...drip...c'mon, just frickin' drip!

Feel free to tune in all year long as a ninth drop in those eighty-six years is expected to fall, and the process is viewable streaming online.

Capulet Pointe Shoe Juliet D3o.rm

Man, ballet dancers have messed up feet. The act of putting all of our weight on the bent over toes time and time and time again is clearly not good for those toes. I've known a couple of ballet dancers in my time, and their feet looked like a car after a traffic crash-up.

Anything that provides even a little more cushioning than does a block of wood for their toes would be embraced instantly. I'm curious as to whether d3o shoes (they show up around 4:05 in the vid) like these have been widely adopted yet.

One of the aspects that I like best about this video is the design process, make, test, remake, make a video and advertise.

Tech21's iPhone protector with d3o at IFA2011

This trade show video does have a decent bit of background noise, but it's a great display of d3o in its native form, a big, orange blob.

My understanding is that most cell phone glass - check the article - shatters much more commonly when hit on the edge of the glass than on the front. Coating the edge, then, is a great idea for screen protection.

Can anybody out there see the big orange line that he mentions at 1:05?

Time Warp - Cornstarch

The Time Warp guys love running just about anything through slow motion and in front of high speed cameras. Oobleck is made for these guys.

Oh, first an actual definition (from the video, slowed down so you can read it) of what a Newtonian fluid is:

The resistance which arises from the lack of slipperiness originating in a fluid, other things, being equal is proportional to the viscosity by which the parts of the fluid are being separated from each other.

Yeah, whatever. Cornstarch and water make for some really fun stuff.

Like...sticking in your hands, running the hands across the surface, then showing it in really super slow motion.

Like...nailing a nail into a floating board (which is really cool to see, honestly).

Like...dumping it on a modified speaker (basically a drum head stretched over a cardboard tube, I think (and playfully mocking your own wedding).

Like...running across a pool of the stuff - and doing a hoedown on the oobleck.

Oh, at 4:20, how does the cornstarch mix flow? Shouldn't it be solidifying as it pours?

Oh, I'm about finished with the Spanish-language video. This one's way better quality and goes more in depth.

Plus it's in English.

What if: cornstarch

Randall Monroe is the creator of XKCD, a sometimes not-quite-school-appropriate cartoon that involves a mixture of computer-, engineering-, math-, and science-based humor (along with a bit of Randall's personal life mixed in here and there). Randall Munroe comes by his humor honestly as he's a former NASA roboticist and programmer.

One of Munroe's many side projects is What-If in which he answers ridiculous questions using solid science research. Most of the questions are absolutely ridiculous - how would a small plane fly in the atmosphere of Jupiter?, is it possible to create a jetpack by firing machine guns downward? - but every now and again he gives us a wonderful materials science question.

Recently we got "How much cornstarch could I rinse down the drain before unpleasant things start to happen?"

I'm absolutely thrilled that Munroe eventually makes the connection between the conrstarch and the great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919.

PS - personally, my favorite question had nothing to do with materials science.

Cornstarch monster - non-Newtonian fluid on speaker

There isn't really anything too new and revolutionary in this video. It's pretty standard cornstarch and water on a speaker. It just happens to be very well done, showing the cornstarch mixture releasing entirely from the speaker. We also get some explorations of varying cornstarch/water ratios.

Fun stuff...

Making Ferrofluid

A great presentation by Scientifiic Tuesdays that covers not only how ferrofluids work, but how to make your own!

Making Stuff Smarter Activity Clip

"The Three Stooges Effect...when the Three Stooges tried to get through a doorway at the same time, and they couldn't?"

"The cornstarch doesn't want to get out of its own way, so when you push on it really hard, it can't move out of the way fast enough. When you hit it really slowly, you can push through it like a liquid."

The 'fill a pool with cornstarch and water' demonstration never gets old.