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:: Photo by Jason Smith
Do-it-yourself weather
As this 100-gallon tank of water slowly spins, simulating the Earth’s rotation, geophysical scientist Noboru Nakamura adds red and green dyes to show how swirling vortices form and cause the planet’s weather patterns. The ice bucket represents the Earth’s polar region, which cools the air—like water, a fluid. Inspired by the “dishpan experiments” of a Chicago meteorologist who died in 2002, Nakamura raised $60,000 for the Dave Fultz (SB’41, PhD’47) Fluid Dynamics Teaching Lab in Hinds Laboratory, including this more permanent representation of Fultz’s dishpan days.
