Re: Toilet bowl physics - OLD THREAD

[msantos@etse.urv.es]

Brian Whatcott wrote:

> This interesting observation of Ludwik's led to no great insights.
>  My offering, for instance,  was a skit on general relativity and 
> 'notional forces'.
>
> As it turns out, there is a recent effort to understand the apparently
> anti-entropic clustering of small mobile objects in a suspension.
>
> The collaboration from UPenn, UCSB, URochester NY, found that that
> small polystyrene balls in water do not cluster when the balls have
>  constant size. If a few balls of larger diameter are added, these 
> latter start clustering at the edges in flat lozenges and hexagons.

Are u talking about colloid like sized balls? Isn't there a great
difference with respect to someones' hair? Indeed, the aggregation
of micelles of surfactant is also apparently anti-entropic, but
the hydrophobic effect seems to explain it: size aside, I'm not
sure to see all the differences.

 apologize for coming with this late after the the topic was
discussed. Also I haven't those references easly accesible.So
I haven't read them.
Any other more "known" reference (Phys Rev, Langmuir,J.Stat.Phys
and so on)?

Regards,
M.A.Santos
msantos@etse.urv.es