Look at the cup, mug, or bottle of water/coffee/juice/whatever other liquids you have right now that I won’t judge you for. Whatever you’re drinking, it’s almost definitely a Newtonian fluid. That basically means that it behaves how you’d expect a liquid to act: Such fluids have a constant viscosity (a.k.a. flow), they take the shape of the container they’re in, and so on. It’s possible that you’ve heard of non-Newtonian fluids, which, as you may imagine, don’t share the same attributes, and in fact have some strange properties. So it looks a bit off when you hit a ball of non-Newtonian fluid with a baseball bat (via Digg).
In the slow-motion video above, the folks behind one of the most popular hydraulic press YouTube channels give a ball of non-Newtonian fluid a whack, and sure enough, its behavior is strange. Instead of splashing like, say, a water balloon would, it appears to instead shatter. The initial impact sort of slices through the ball, which sends shards of non-Newtonian fluid flying out from the point of impact.
The video conveniently includes a side-by-side comparison of a water balloon and ball of non-Newtonian fluid being hit, and there’s definitely a profound difference to how they behave in these circumstances. If this video didn’t happen to satisfy all of your non-Newtonian interests, though, The Slow Mo Guys made a video on the stuff a few years ago, and in it, they put some on a speaker and see how it reacts sound vibrations.
What else do you want to see hit with a baseball bat in slow motion? Let us know what you think down in the comments below!
Featured image: Beyond The Press
