Vortex Rings

Hi world!

Sorry that neither of us have been very active on this blog recently... We have our exams starting next week so pressure is pretty high right now.

I was just taking a break/ procrastinating and came across something I thought would be fun to post about. 

Vortex Rings

A vortex ring, also called a toroidal vortex, is a torus shaped vortex in a fluid; that is, a region where the fluid mostly spins around an imaginary axis line that forms a closed loop. The dominant flow in a vortex ring is toroidal.

Vortex rings are plentiful in turbulent flows of liquids and gases, but are unnoticeable unless the motion of the fluid is revealed by suspended particles. Some common examples of vortex rings in every day life are the smoke rings which are often produced intentionally or accidentally by smokers. Fiery vortex rings are also a commonly produced trick by fire eaters. Visible vortex rings can also formed by the firing of certain artillery, in mushroom clouds, and in microbursts.

A vortex ring usually tends to move in a direction that is perpendicular to the plane of the ring and such that the inner edge of the ring moves faster forward than the outer edge. Within a stationary body of fluid, a vortex ring can travel for relatively long distance, carrying the spinning fluid with it.

(smoking is bad don't do it)

but this is a cool example of science so I'll let it slide

Dayla