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Soap film studied for clues to plane crashes
August 6, 1996
Web posted at: 2:30 p.m. EDTPITTSBURGH, Pennsylvania (CNN) -- The free-flowing movements of airborne bubbles are being studied for clues to the air turbulence that can crash planes.
Physicists at the University of Pittsburgh are working with soap film to look for patterns in swirls of air.
"The goal is to find universal notions that help us understand something as chaotic and random as turbulence," said physicist Walter Goldburg.
The scientists suspend flat sheets of soap film, disturb them, than capture the swirling changes with computer video images.
(953K QuickTime movie)
The study may have particular relevance in Pittsburgh, where USAir Flight 427 crashed two years ago, killing all 132 people on board. Air turbulence is on the short list of possible factors in the crash.
The physicists are sharing their novel approach with children, who can play with a 50-foot soap film display in a Pittsburgh museum's circular stairwell.
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