High-speed radiography images of a sand jet created by dropping a marble into loose sand show that the sand briefly behaves like a special type of dense fluid. The images were captured by scientists from The University of Chicago and Universidad de Chile using the GSECARS 13-BM-D beamline at the APS. As noted on the researchers’ Web site, “Understanding the peculiar behavior of granular materials is vital for predicting and controlling them under a variety of industrial, civil engineering, and scientific conditions.”
Link:http://chronicle.uchicago.edu/060105/physicists.shtml
See Royer et al., Nature Physics 1(3), 164 (December 2005).
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