Photographers give us glimpses of the world that stand outside of time. Those moments can help us understand unique moments in physics. Using a camra that can capture images at 1,000 frames per second, researchers have recorded fluids behaving like solids. Here’s more from Engadget:
The team put a liquid mixture of corn starch and water into a narrow cell, and subjected it to pressurized air that resulted in Discontinuous Shear Thickening — that is, the fluid thickened and produced solid-style “fractures….” By itself, the study revealed what was possible with the material. You could turn the friction (and thus the fluid state) “on and off like a switch” just by varying the pressure.