Tokyo, Japan - Researchers from Tokyo Metropolitan University have studied the properties of mixtures of silicone-coated magic sand , a popular kid s toy, and normal sand. Silicone-coated sand particles were found to interact with each other only, and not with other sand particles. The team discovered that adding silicone-coated sand beyond a certain threshold leads to an abrupt change in clustering and rigidity, a simple, useful way to potentially tune the flow of granular materials for industry.
Scientists from Tokyo Metropolitan University have unraveled how liquid foams collapse by visualizing individual collapse “events” using high-speed video microscopy.