emergence | Water Calendar

Ink droplets falling in water

Umbrella shaped ink droplet — Slowly sinking umbrella shaped ink droplet, like a primitive octopus. Photo(s): Lasse Johansson

Water’s inherent tendency to form patterns can be observed as simple as with ink droplets falling into water (preferably in a container with flat walls). The impact of the droplet creates vaulting toroidal forms, vortexes resembling jellyfish, and finally, when the motion slows down, settles into sinking octopus-like forms.

Studying and looking at the flow patterns can be really captivating. I once tried this experiment with children in kindergarten, who were amazed, and would stand dripping ink into the water for more than half an hour. Continue reading Ink droplets falling in water

Self-organization

Self-organizing sand-water rolls — Sand-water rolls self-organizing in the receding
stream. Agadir, Morocco. Photo: Lasse Johansson

Self-organizing, seemingly out of nothing, the sand-water rolls appear. Where did they come from? The moment before, when the incoming stream reached its highest level and turned, there was only a flat surface of murky water.

Self-organization means the spontaneous formation of a macroscopic structure, an order for free, as it were, emerging when the effects of the individuals, e.g. the movement of water molecules, start to interlock and add up, forming a new complexity. When the conditions are right, self-organization occurs, spontaneously, like a vortex forming in a bath tub. Continue reading Self-organization