The issue was thus: A normal sprinkler with S-shaped arms will spit out water, propelling the arms to rotate, watering whatever needs watering. But whether a reverse sprinkler would rotate at all remained an open question, and not for lack of trying. The reverse sprinkler redux (as I call it—rolls right off the tongue!) The resulting footage is pretty trippy:The team’s research—published last week in Physical Review Letters—found that a reverse sprinkler does precisely that. We discovered that the secret is hidden inside the sprinkler, where there are indeed jets that explain the observed motions.”Though the reverse sprinkler rotates (checks notes) in reverse, it only does so at about 1/50th the speed of an ordinary sprinkler.

Source: The Nation January 31, 2024 23:24 UTC