This morning I encountered my wife's coffee cup from last night. It was
full, sitting undisturbed, and on its surface was a convection pattern.
But rather than the hexagons commonly seen in "Benard Cell" convection,
this pattern was different. It was dark radial branches, starting with
five or six dark branches in the center. Further from the center each
branch split, then split again and again and again, and out at the rim of
the cup it had grown to a couple of hundred dark branches. It looked like
satellite photos of a river drainage basin.
Has anyone else seen similar things? Do other types of patterns appear?
I think the flow was made visible because the creamer had settled
somewhat, leaving a thin transparent layer on top, and where this
transparent layer was flowing downwards it created dark cracks in the
opaque muddy coffee.
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William Beaty voice:206-781-3320 bbs:206-789-0775 cserv:71241,3623
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