Science meets art in Brown engineering course, as students capture the beauty of fluid mechanics

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] - In a ground floor laboratory inside the Barus and Holley building at Brown University, students gather around a brightly colored mix of fluids. Every few seconds, they watch as droplets fall into a beaker holding a white, blue and neon pink blend, sending liquid splashing upwards.

The students note each impact and pattern - sometimes with marvel - before quickly deliberating and tinkering with the experiment for a more precise splash.

Given the laboratory setting and the precision the students seemed to be aiming for, it's easy to assume the group had purely scientific goals in mind as they repeated the process again and again. Their true purpose, however, had a much more aesthetic slant.

Conducting the experiment as part of Engineering 0350: Art Fluid Engineering, the students' goal was to capture stunning imagery, using high-speed photography, of the different ways liquids can splash. The end product is meant to show how the work of scientists and engineers, and the fundamental laws and principles they rely on, can also be applied to artistic creation.