Course: Flow Visualization: A Course in the Physics and Art of Fluid Flow

Three students created this piece in which stage fog from a slot forms a ‘jelly roll’ in the air. A green laser sheet slices the roll. Andi Fabri (Art, Comm’00)

Department: Mechanical Engineering

Professor: Jean Hertzberg

Course description: Anybody who has paid attention to patterns formed while stirring milk into coffee has participated in flow visualization. It is the process of making the physics of fluid flows — gases and liquids — visible. Designed for engineering, fine arts photography and video students, the class explores techniques for creating images of fluid flows.

Course website:  www.colorado.edu/engineering/MCEN/flowvis

Video link: www.youtube.com/watch?v=putWRWbP6Ds

Abbreviated reading list:

Gavin Pretor-Pinney’s The Cloudspotter’s Guide (Perigee/Penguin)

A.J. Smits and T.T. Lim’s Flow Visualization Techniques and Examples (Imperial College Press)

Hertzberg says: “Development of this course has been the most profound teaching experience of my career. For the first time, I found that my course had an impact; students came out with changed perceptions, really being able to ‘see’ the world around them in a
different way.”