Bizarre liquid jets explained - the Kaye effect 

2 hours later, with some tweaking of variables, I'd noticed some very unusual behavior. My wife, she kept yelling at me about something. Something about wasting money and shampoo. I didn't quite understand what she was talking about. That shampoo downward viscous flow though, that was some serious business.

8:00 " So next time you notice something strange, dig a little deeper, you might find something you can pour out of a beaker."

"Honey.....why is there shampoo all over the floor...." "SCIENCE!!"

That beaded chain metaphor/visualization was so perfect.

I have a degree in fluid mechanics, and I had never seen or heard of this cool effect. I did guess shear thinning correctly; but its humbling that you can understand a subject pretty well at a reductionistic level, yet still be so utterly clueless in anticipating all the cool implications thereof. Anyway, subscribed!

You can get a stable jet by pouring onto an inclined plane.

You are a great teacher!

“I’m the kind of person that gets easily distracted by side quests” I’ll never play an rpg with you.

What we do here is pour out... out... out... out...

I prefer my shampoo 乇乂ㄒ尺卂 ㄒ卄丨匚匚

Oh my gosh, you have given me an amazing defence from my partner's retorts when I get distracted: I'm not scatterbrained, I'm just side-questing!

I love falling asleep to your vids! your voice is soothing, and science has always been one of my fav things to learn about. so the combo of the two is always a one-two punch to knock me out! Thanks for being such an amazing scientist and youtuber!

Shear stress is not the only thing that can influence viscosity, for example ketchup is indeed shear thinning, but on top of that, it is also thixotropic, meaning that if it is subjected to a constant shear stress the viscosity will go down, if this has happened it will need to "recover" once the sheer stress is removed (hysteresis), whereas a non-thixotrophic shear thinning product will regain its viscosity instantly as soon as sheer decreases, a third mechanism also found in ketchup is yield stress, which means that it needs a certain minimal amount of stress to even start moving (that's the reason why getting ketchup out of a glass bottle might at first be difficult, but it can start suddenly flowing and will keep flowing. Furthermore, opposite to shear thinning there is shear thickening, which is that the viscosity increases as shear stress increases, which is much less common. Opposite of thixotropic is rheopectic where the viscosity increases when it is subjected to constant shear stress. If a product shows any of these properties or a combination thereof, then they're non-Newtonian fluids, and the vast majority of liquids actually show non-Newtonian behaviour of some sort, only few liquids, such as water, follow Newtonian behaviour.

What we do here is do maths

"People associate viscosity with luxuriousness" - I didn't realize it until you pointed it out, but I definitely subscribe to that. My dog's shampoo is very non-viscous and I know I've been thinking of it as cheap-seeming. Okay cool things I've noticed and subsequently spent way too much time distracted with (even though they're already well known and probably not many people would even consider them cool/weird): 1. Bending water with static (balloon, plastic ruler, whatever) 2. The not-quite-haphazard-seeming way the light ripples and travels through, leaving flakes of insubstantial ash in its wake, as the end of a stick burns if you can get it going without an actual flame blocking your vision (like with coals in a campfire, but smaller and closer to your face. The hard part is getting it burning juuuuust right. I've only managed it a couple times, ever.) 3. The way you can stare at a repeated pattern and when you focus just right, at the wrong distance, your perspective shifts and suddenly it's like there's a large overlay of the pattern much closer to your face (I spent SO many shopping trips with my mom in the cart doing this with the shopping cart lattice as a child), it's the same thing that gets stereograms to work. This is probably the one I'm the most interested in to be honest. I'd love to learn more about why this works. I know it has to do with the angle of your eyes and where your visual focus is, but I don't actually understand how things line up to that effect. 4. The way your hand looks and feels if you place it on the surface of still water and sink it in very, very, very slowly. The prickly filmy...ness. 5. The way metal feels when you break it. Anything from twisting off bits of spiral notebook spiral, to bending a paper clip a few times, to tearing through thin aluminum wrappers from candy bars. It's so strange how it just, suddenly gives. One moment it feels infallible, even as it bends or twists it feels like you could do it forever without consequence and then suddenly it gives all at once, and if you stop just then it'll still be attached, just suddenly very very weak, any more pressure at all and it just falls right off - but it obviously doesn't feel like when something brittle gives either. Neat. 6. The way silly putty (or Gak, or Oobleck) is bendy and flowy and yielding but if you pull really really fast it snaps as if it's super brittle. That's just a non newtonian fluid though, I think. Puzzle answer: One Knight. All three people have been called the Joker by someone else respectively, and one (only one) of them IS the Joker, so then ipso facto only one of them is telling the truth. If only one person is telling the Truth, there cannot be more than one Knight; Knights cannot lie. While the Joker COULD tell the truth, if there is only the one Joker (s)he would have to name themself in order to tell the truth. Since no one names themself, then the joker must be lying. This means the one person telling the truth is the only Knight, in addition to one Joker and one Knave. All this is regardless of which person is which in the puzzle. Assigning names is just to distract with extraneous information in this case. Strangely, finding a way to explain that in the comment was a LOT more difficult than just following that logic to reach the answer in the first place xD

Your wife must have so much patience. I kind of envy you.

Absolutely loved the way this video was organized. First the discovery, then the experiment and the resulting explanation and the reasoning.

I saw this happen few months ago when I refilled a soap container, but didn't have a camera that would actually focus on the action. So i had no way to science it without just standing in my kitchen pouring soap out Thanks for figuring it out.

Steve, I've noticed the same effect while pouring liquid laundry detergent into the receptacle of my washing machine. It's specifically one of those machines with the shallow triangular receptacle in one corner, and the Kaye effect happens as the detergent hits the bottom of the shallow receptacle. I have been fascinated by it for years, especially because the frequency seems to change as the cup of detergent goes from a steady pour to long drips as it empties. Thanks for providing a name and explanation for this phenomenon! Love your stuff!

At 5:12 how you say "Luxuriousness" is hilarious!! Lol! Great video thank you!

What we do here is go back!

"I think in general life can be improved by pouring things out of a beaker" Brilliant

Fascinating coincidence that the bead chain came in handy for the explanation of shear thinning, since when the effect was first shown my immediate thought was a superficial similarity in how the jets move to the bead-chain fountain effect explored at length elsewhere on this channel

I like the metaphoric examples you use. It makes things make sense. Keep up the awesome videos!

You do realise your wife is a saint, right? ;-)

Steve, I love your videos. I study chaotic (such as Lorenz and Rossler) systems as part of my undergraduate research. The other day, I was boiling lentils and noticed that they exhibit chaotic behavior in when they decide to float or sink. I haven't been able to find any examples online about this. If you get the chance, I'd love to see some investigation into the cause. Thanks!

**Shampoo leaks out** Other people: This guy: **Isaac Newton discovering Gravity**

This guy's explanation is simple amazing. I have no idea how he managed to explain this without any animation Great job👏

I will now pour something out of a beaker. I feel an urge. Thanks, Steve! Merry christmas!

chonchent chop

Hey Steve! Great content man. You found the perfect formula not only to make a video entertaining throughout but also to go straight to the point from the very beginning without following the “usual structure” of a video. You tube would be a better place if more channels followed your lead. Keep ‘‘em coming!

You are awesome. Best explanation ever.

love the fairy lights on the red pipe in the background

One of them is a joker. There is a statement for each of them stating they're the joker. One and only one of the statements must be true. There is one knight.

I like the way you keep things simple and easy to understand. Thanx for that 👍

This is amazing. I was just starting some laundry and as I was pouring the detergent into the little detergent tray, it started to fly all over the place. I started contemplating what had happened, and then I found this video.

Good God, I was gonna write "You shouldn't have used that music; the entire comment section will be filled with the same thing." I guess I was late.

Did you know early reverb filters for guitars used springs to "store" the sound information? It was basically a long relatively loose spring that had a speaker (I think a piezo) on one end and a microfon (probably a guitar pickup) at the other end. Could be interesting to investigate that, considering you already did a similar thing with the Rubens tube.

1:18 "Laboratory conditions" is indeed commonly accepted to mean one or more tripods, lights, a serving tray and mellow electronica.

Listening to your videos is very much like listening to my psyche doing a RU-vid video for me. I too get asked by my wife regularly "what are you doing", usually while I'm poking at something fascinatedly, as it makes progressively more mess around me. Please never stop.

"easily distracted by a side quest" is me, turned out I just have ADHD and this is pretty much how brains work when affected by it

Ah yes Erin, Faro and Gobi, my favorite Attacker Tittan characters

1:38 I just love the mess you've made here. Thanks for taking one in the name of science, Steve. Also - Lianne - for putting up with him

I was puzzled by the same thing for 6 months you covered in this video. Why my shower gel used to jump around like crazy. Thank you very much for solving and feeding my curiosity.

Thanks Steve from everybody else who's wife, girlfriend, etc frequently asks "... and what are you doing?" :)

Just found your channel and I gotta say it's definitely not like any other science/facts channel and I really really like it! You explain things like they should be. You don't talk to us as if we're morons or clueless cavemen but you speak in a way that teachers should speak to their students. Thank you so much.

You seem soooooo chill my dude Great video! Earned my sub for sure!

The bead explanation for shear thinning was A+! Never thought of it that way

all i got from this was that men like their soap thicc

Ngl, I thought I clicked to a content cop video

Seriously cool and novel content. Would be interesting to increase the fall distance for some of the other viscous fluids to see if you could recreate the effect.

Absolutely fantastic video! Keep up the good work. I also related very much with being able to observe your environment even if that means pausing everything else in life to study and effect.

It's a pity you didn't discover the Kaye effect, it could have been the Mould Effect 2.0, they look really similar and you even used a string of beads in your explaination

"Thanks Kaye, very cool!"

I am an automotive mechanic, I have noticed motor oil acting somewhat like this when pouring through a funnel, when the funnel is coated with oil and the stream of oil from the bottle is thin, it will "bounce" off of the film of oil on the wall of the funnel. I presume this is also the Kaye effect? Thanks for all the great videos.

Hi Steve, thanks for this truly entertaining video! What a great effect!

Steve, you can test your hypothesis about the Kaye effect being related to time, and that it works because the shampoo has time to restore its viscosity in falling from the hand. To do this, you'd need to try ketchup from a tall tower, giving it more fall time in which to restore its viscosity. Maybe have a word with your local fire station. Not only may they have a practice tower, but they will have the means to wash away the ketchup mess easily too!

this what first day of December looks like

as a kid I was always fascinated how releasing a dangling chain into a pile looked so similar to slowly dripping something like honey or syrup. The dripping and build up effects seemed the same.

Laminar flow, aka Coanda effect, is a fascinating and somewhat useful effect. I employed the effect in the firing of my ceramic kiln. I built an arch with the burners (3) pointed upwards at the base of one sidewall with the idea that the flames would travel up that wall and then, mixing with the interior gasses, flow back down to the opposite side to the exit flue thereby efficiently heating the entire kiln without any "hot spots". A "downdraft" kiln. Worked great and was fuel efficient. Most ceramic kilns are simply large boxes with hot spots throughout resulting in irregular results. Every piece that wasn't "right" was a "waster" . I had a 100% success rate for many firings.

One knight. Only one can tell the truth. If A is a joker, B says C is a joker, B is lying so he cant be. C says A its a joker, wich is true, so he is either a joker or a knight, but since there can only be one joker, he is s knight. And since its a loop, it doesnt matter who is who. Pretty easy one this time :c

🤔 similar motion in solar flares, fluid dynamics in plasma 👍

that chain example was perfect, good work!

This is one of the videos that opens eyes to how science is used everywhere and usually a lot of fun

First 30sec describes my whole life, I thought I was just weird or something.

There's a typo in the description. Kaye not Kay :)

Your polymer molecule demonstration by using the string of beads was SHEER genius! There aren't enough moments in my life when I feel that "Bam! Knowledge acquired!" feeling, but that definitely one of them.

This is one of the rare pop-sci videos where I learned something I did not even hear of before (Mould effect was another, but I saw it on some other channel before I watched your original one). Actually, when reading on non-Newtonian fluids in the context of shear-thickening ones (as in "running over a pool of custard"), I did read that shear-thinning fluids existed, too, but did not follow up. Great! Thank you for entertaining and illuminating content. (And I bet Lianne will use some of your observations over at Bonitots; or is it the other way around? (o: )

Interesting would the stream of shampoo jump multiple times of the bed of shampoo if the stream will be fired on very sharp angle? I mean like a flat rock jumps on the water. P.S. You also can see this effect in the stream of honey.

The great return of the beakers!

There's probably some polymer chain alignment going on as the shampoo stretches out as it falls, versus the randomized chains those meet when they hit the bottom.

Nice content! 💚, Explaining this with graphical representations will help a lot in wrapping head around the concept, It would be awesome if you can do that in your future videos.

me: oh? a video about weird jets? that's interesting :^) the video: *_CONTENT COP_*

Next time you see something strange, pour it out of a beaker.

I've noticed this so many times in upturned washing up liquid bottles, but genuinely never knew how to google it. Thanks for this!

I'm a chemical engineering grad and this has been the best description and example of shear thinning I have ever seen. Where were you when I was in school 😢?

I would have also stared at the dripping shampoo XD

Thixotropic. There, I said it.

Wow man, I have observed it before and couldn't wrap my head around it! Thanks so much!

I f**king LOVED the EDM montage of... shampoo... pouring onto the floor 🤣. The cheeky nature of the editing was not missed, sir. 👌

That intro song. What is this, Content Cop?

" Men prefer their shampoo *T H I C C* "

Awesome video! It almost seems as though the shampoo squirts with more force than the dribble is providing, I wish we got a view of the height its pouring from, it's hard to get an idea of how much is pouring in. Also the shampoo "mound" appears to deflate while the shampoo jet occurs. almost like its being pressed on and assisting the jet.

Hi Steve, two fun must tries: take a meet tray or thin foam egg tray make a small boat shape out of a piece it 5/16 x 3/16 small.. take a cookie sheet tray and put about a finger nails depth of water in it ... Try just a drop of tooth paste as a "motor" on the back edge in the center ( try shampoo ) and other things as a propellant motor .. they really get ripping around with the right kind of soap or motor.. #2 take a new piece of sirran wrap about a foot long use bread crumbs from a Baggett or French or Italian hard bread small pieces 1/16" to 1/8" various small flakes.. stretch the sirran wrap and hold the plastic over the bread crumbs and watch the pieces be electrostatically be drawn up to the plastic sheet .. the stretching charges the plastic I got about 3" away with my piece of plastic .. just some fun projects to try enjoy .. Ed in Phoenix writes

Why do I have a picture of his wife in my mind of seeing him and silently turning around to go to buy another shampoo bottle...

No shampoo was overused in the making of this video

You have no idea how long I've wanted to know what this phenomenon was called. I noticed the effect specifically when pouring laundry detergent into my parents top loading washing machine when I was a teenager more than twenty years ago. Extremely satisfied to finally have that question answered!

5:33 y'know, after your introductory statements, I'm not too surprised about this. Fun video!

One knight, choose faro to he joker(doesn't) matter, she lies about about gobi, and gobi lies about erin, so both are not knights, erin tells the truth about faro, so she could be a knight, or joker, but faro is already they joker, so she is a knight

Each state that the next person is a joker Exactly 1 is a joker The statement is true exactly 1 time There is exactly 1 knight.

For the puzzle the fact that the joker can "lie or tell the truth" is a red herring if only 1 joker can exist. Since everyone accuses somebody else of being the joker, instead of themslves, the joker must always be lying. Since only 1 person can be telling the truth of who the joker is, and jokers can only ever lie because of how the situation is, there is only 1 knight, and the other guy is a knave. The puzzle deliberately tries to confuse you with how the joker works when the set up secretly removes all of their power

I often noticed this while pouring honey when I was a teenager. The flow column needs to be pretty thin and the spurts are much shorter but discernable. Thank you for the impressive video and the explanation!

I legit thought the title said "The Kanye Effect"

What we do here is go back back back

I've always wondered about this. Unfortunately, I didn't know the question. I'm so glad this crossed my feed.

Please look into this phenomenon that bothered me for years. Whenever there is something moving, mostly you can see it in rotary devices like a fan or a car wheel, at a certain speed, there will appear a red and blue pattern on the fens or whatever is the rotating object. Please please make a video about this phenomenon 😭🙏🏼🙏🏼

20w 50 oil was doing that for me earlier today while I was changing my oil

I can’t be the only one who read “The Kanye Effect”.

Haaa... “Kids can’t control their limbs, it’s really annoying and he wanted to be stable as they kind of flail around” best quote of the video. Man this guy is fantastic. Great job bud! Seen most of your videos.

I stumbled across this today and I was mesmerized. Totally fascinated like I use to be when I was a little kid and would do things like come across a dead bee in the window screen and explore the hollow exoskeleton with absolute curiosity. Now I have to find your video with the beads coming out of the beaker. That looked very interesting at 8:02