Simple experiments create strange matter state

Physicists at the University of Chicago (USA) drop a marble into a loose sandbox, soaring up a sand beam that has a special kind of solid liquid. They describe it as an extraordinary state of matter.

" We discovered a new state of liquid, which exists in the form of a combination of gas - in this case air - and condensed matter particles. This phenomenon is amazing ," said the team leader. Research Heinrich Jaeger said.

How does it work?

Strange states of matter are sometimes created in extreme cold conditions, close to absolute zero. Everything becomes abnormal at that critical point (molecules almost stop moving). But this experiment took place at room temperature.

" The line of sand surges up like a super-strong and super-cold. The cold word here does not refer to the surrounding temperature, but in the way we determine the temperature through the random movement of particles ", Jaeger explained. " In this sand line, there are very, very few random movements ".

Although announced yesterday, the phenomenon was first recorded since 2001, in the work of Sigurdur Thoroddsen and Amy Shen, who later worked at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (USA). .

Jaeger encouraged his student Andrew Flior to repeat the experiment, and a team led by Detlef Lohse of the University of Twente, Netherlands, used high-speed video and computer models to conjecture. that the grain of sand grains is generated by gravity when the material rushes in to fill the void left by the marble.

Researchers have created X-ray images at speeds of 5,000 frames per second. They concluded that compressed air between particles provided most of the energy to drive sand currents (a similar experiment performed in low air pressure control did not produce such a strong stream).

" This result is far different from conjecture ," Lohse said. " We used to think that the effect of air will weaken the air flow, but in this case it is the opposite ."

The sand line is divided into two separate parts, one is hard and the other is one.

" One of the biggest mysteries we still haven't solved is why the sand line has such clear boundaries ."

You can repeat this basic experiment at home, although there will be no fund to fund photography and therefore you cannot fully observe the phenomenon. Pour sugar into a container so that it is loose. Drop a marble into the jar and watch.

T. An ( according to LiveScience )