Modeling a White Hole With Your Kitchen Sink 104
jamie passes along this excerpt from Wired:
"That ring of water in your kitchen sink is actually a model white hole. For the first time, scientists have shown experimentally that liquid flowing from a tap embodies the same physics as the time-reversed equivalent of black holes. When a stream of tap water hits the flat surface of the sink, it spreads out into a thin disc bounded by a raised lip, called the hydraulic jump. Physicists’ puzzlement with this jump dates back to Lord Rayleigh in 1914. More recently, physicists have suggested that, if the water waves inside the disc move faster than the waves outside, the jump could serve as an analogue event horizon. Water can approach the ring from outside, but it can’t get in."
Re:Real physicists use analogues commonly. (Score:4, Informative)
It has practical uses as well... if you are running a combustion based rocket motor with a continuous flow of liquid fuel, you really don't want the ignition to travel back through the fuel lines. At the same time, you don't want so much fuel going out that it is unburnt. One way to solve this is to have a narrowed constriction along the fuel line which forces the pressure and velocity up, thus preventing any backflow.
Re:What about the toilet? (Score:3, Informative)