The staff at Science Friday, too, senses the masses growing interest in all things oobleck and is shamelessly trying to ignore this blogs leadership efforts and elbow us out of the way. SciFri does trump us by getting two experts, University of Michigan’s Robert Deegan and University of Texas’ Harry Swinney, to unravel what is going on with dancing oobleck.
Says Deegan: “It’s really astonishing. Swinney: “It is. It’s really remarkable.” Deegan: “Somehow, these particles are combining and they are formng some structure.”
Hmm. . . that’s not exactly graduate level physics, but they do their best to provide a high-level explanation of what’s going on at times with this stuff. And they actually give a plausible explanation of why multiple, long-lasting holes can be made in the fluid exposed to standing waves.
But, what about those scary dancing fingers? Says Swinney: “Ah, the fingers . . . are more subtle.That’s something we don’t understand as well.”
Score: Oobleck 1, physicists 0.