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Using the tracked particles, we now analyze the velocity of the fluid both on the surface and at the frontal boundary starting around 11 minutes after the removal of the can. As can be seen from the above images, the fluid appears sufficiently stable at this point in the experiment to assume hydrostatic balance.We At this time, we track particles at the surface, where we expect to see cyclonic behavior as the , resulting in the following set of tracks:
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The axis are labeled in pixels, and the dot at the center indicates the center of the front. Each of the different colors correspond to an individual tracked particle.
From the two above plots, one can see that the fluid does behave cyclonically at the surface, as we expected. At large radii, where the frontal boundary has a very small slope, the azimuthal velocity is small, as would be expected from the Margules relation. As the radius decreases, the slope increases, and so does the azimuthal velocity of the fluid, reaching its peak at around 5 centimeters. At very small radii, the azimuthal velocity decreases again as the frontal boundary flattens.
5 Challenge: Inverting the Dome!
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