Get smart curated videos delivered to your inbox.   SUBSCRIBE
The Kid Should See This

Demonstrations of the Coanda Effect using Schlieren optics

Watch more with these video collections:

Fluids flowing near a surface tend to follow the shape of the surface. Using Schlieren optics, we can see this behavior. It is known as the Coanda Effect and its explanation depends on viscosity, the frictional forces between the molecules of a fluid (be it liquid or gas). The Coanda effect is the culprit behind many everyday incidents as well as more esoteric phenomena, such has levitating a ball in a stream of air.

From the Harvard Natural Sciences Lecture Demonstrations channel on YouTube, Wolfgang Rueckner demonstrates the Coanda Effect using a wine bottle, a candle, coffee mugs, a hairdryer, a basketball, and more.

air flow around a basketball
air flow holds up a ping pong ball
Next: How Ingenious Animals Have Engineered Air Conditioning.

Plus, watch more Schlieren demonstrations, including:
• What Does Sound Look Like?
A match being struck as seen with Schlieren technique
• How do masks work against Covid-19?

This Webby award-winning video collection exists to help teachers, librarians, and families spark kid wonder and curiosity. TKSST features smarter, more meaningful content than what's usually served up by YouTube's algorithms, and amplifies the creators who make that content.

Curated, kid-friendly, independently-published. Support this mission by becoming a sustaining member today.

🌈 Watch these videos next...

Why do spinning rings & spinning disks have different paths?

Rion Nakaya

Why do some birds fly in v-formation?

Rion Nakaya

Why do geese fly in V formation?

Rion Nakaya

Which ball will race to the bottom first?

Rion Nakaya

What happens to balloon animals in liquid nitrogen?

Rion Nakaya

What happens to a flame in an electric field?

Rion Nakaya

Weight distribution on light bulbs and eggs, a physics demonstration

Rion Nakaya

Wake vortex in the fog as an airplane lands

Rion Nakaya

The physics of why birds fly in V-formation

Rion Nakaya