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The "Cheerios effect"

American Journal of Physics -- September 2005 -- Volume 73, Issue 9, pp. 817-825

Issue Date: September 2005
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KEYWORDS and PACS

Keywords
PACS
  • 01.50.My
    Demonstration experiments and apparatus for education
  • 01.50.Pa
    Laboratory experiments and apparatus for education
  • YEAR: 2005

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PUBLICATION DATA

ISSN:
0002-9505 (print)  
Publisher:
AIP is a member of CrossRef AAPT
Dominic Vella and L. Mahadevan
Division of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Pierce Hall, 29 Oxford Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138
Objects that float at the interface between a liquid and a gas interact because of interfacial deformation and the effect of gravity. We highlight the crucial role of buoyancy in this interaction, which, for small particles, prevails over the capillary suction that often is assumed to be the dominant effect. We emphasize this point using a simple classroom demonstration, and then derive the physical conditions leading to mutual attraction or repulsion. We also quantify the force of interaction in particular instances and present a simple dynamical model of this interaction. The results obtained from this model are validated by comparison to experimental results for the mutual attraction of two identical spherical particles. We consider some of the applications of the effect that can be found in nature and the laboratory. ©2005 American Association of Physics Teachers.
History: Received 22 November 2004; accepted 25 February 2005
Permalink: http://dx.doi.org/10.1119/1.1898523

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