Gravity simulation on a hot stove

[nothke]

I just noticed something in my kitchen, proly due to KSP obsession and had to record it

Scientific disclaimer: the water floats above very hot objects due to Leidenfrost effect

enjoy =)

[MrTheBull]

electric stove) hmm nice)) gravity in action

[magnemoe]

You get the same effect with liquid nitrogen at room temperature.

In fact one of the safety recommendations with liquid nitrogen is to not wear warm clothes

if you spill liquid nitrogen on you skin it will just peel off, however if you spill on clothes who absorb water like a cotton sweater it will be wet with liquid nitrogen and give you frost burns.

[K^2]

I've actually put my hand into the container with liquid nitrogen. If done briefly enough, vapor shield protects your skin. Very weird experience.

On topic of the video, this is definitely a simulation of central potential interaction, but not quite gravitational. Gravity is a -1/r potential, and what you have looks like it's roughly r² potential. That's a harmonic potential which does result in closed, elliptic orbits, but while gravity-induced orbits have the center of potential at the focus of the ellipse, here the geometrical center of the ellipse is going to coincide with center of the potential well.

[Idobox]

A better approximation is bearing balls in a funnel. If you happen to have a funnel with the right shape (it looks a bit like a trumpet, I 'm too lazy to find the equation), you can get a pretty good approx of the gravity of a planet.

You can also use any conical shpae, or even a bowl, but you will loose the 1/r² relation, meaning stable orbits might not be possible.

[K^2]

The equation for that funnel is going to be h = 1/r - exactly the same as equation for gravitational potential energy.

[Skyler4856]

I noticed this the other day while sticking a spoon in my fireplace.

[Idobox]

Thanks K^2, I was trying to find the slope to get 1/r², which is beyond what I can do in my head.