{"id":1228,"date":"2009-06-04T21:39:25","date_gmt":"2009-06-04T12:39:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2009-06-04\/1228"},"modified":"2009-06-04T21:39:25","modified_gmt":"2009-06-04T12:39:25","slug":"milk-drops","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2009-06-04\/1228","title":{"rendered":"Milk Drops"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n
\nNOTE<\/b>: Images with an icon next to them have been artificially shrunk to better fit your screen; click the icon to restore them, in place, to their regular size.\n<\/div>\n\n\n
<\/a>\n“The MILK as milked”<\/div>\n\n

Anthony noticed a crown-shaped image on a carton<\/span> of milk (seen at\nright), and asked what it was. I explained<\/span> that it was what happens when a\ndrop<\/span> of milk splashes, and he was quite interested, though somewhat\nskeptical.<\/p>\n\n

I promised to show him, explaining that it was too fast for the eye to\nnotice, but that we could use a camera<\/span> to stop the action. His interest<\/span> was\npiqued.<\/p>\n\n

I set the camera up on a tripod, got a black<\/span> dish and put some milk in\nit, set my SB-800 flash as a slave<\/span> on 1\/64 manual power and pointed it at\nthe dish, dipped a thin<\/span> straw into a glass<\/span> of milk to get some, and let a\ndrop<\/span> fall into the dish. Timing and aim were a bit<\/span> tricky, but in short order we had\na good<\/span> shot...<\/p>\n\n
\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f\/2.8 @ 70 mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>250 sec, f<\/span>\/11, ISO 200 —\nfull exif<\/a><\/span>\nSplash<\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n

As we checked the image on the screen on the back of the camera, Anthony\nwas positively amazed<\/i> and very excited.<\/p>\n\n

The flash was very close (you can see it a bit<\/span> in the lower-left of the frame above), and eventually I thought<\/span>\nto move it further away, to make the shadows more harsh, which I thought<\/span> might add some drama. I also added<\/span> more milk,\nto create a deeper<\/span> pool...<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f\/2.8 @ 70 mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>125 sec, f<\/span>\/11, ISO 200 —\nfull exif<\/a><\/span>\nGlug<\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n

Small drops produced dainty splashes...<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f\/2.8 @ 70 mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>60 sec, f<\/span>\/11, ISO 200 —\nfull exif<\/a><\/span>\nPling<\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n

I also wanted to show what happens when the crown collapses on itself,\nslamming together in the center and, with no where else to go, shoots\nstraight back up like Old Faithful. I knew this<\/span> would be more pronounced\nwith a deeper<\/span> pool, so I switched<\/span> containers...<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f\/2.8 @ 70 mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>60 sec, f<\/span>\/11, ISO 200 —\nfull exif<\/a><\/span>\nPlonk<\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n

I tried some more with a dark tray under the dish, but after a few<\/span>\nminutes he had had enough, so I took<\/span> the camera off the tripod to get a\nshot<\/span> showing the setup...<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f\/2.8 @ 32 mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>100 sec, f<\/span>\/4.5, ISO 5000 —\nfull exif<\/a><\/span>\nThe Setup<\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

I then brought the camera back to my office to clean the milk-splattered lens.<\/p>\n\n

\n\n

This all reminded me of the science-fair project I did<\/span> for my\nhigh-school physics class. I got a<\/span> high-speed scientific strobe from the\nteacher, Mr. Killius (whom we all called “Dr. K”) and set up a trigger<\/span> made\nfrom wire and barely-separated aluminum foil, on top of which I put<\/span> a\nplate<\/span> filled with water. When the a drop<\/span> hit the plate, the strobe was\ntriggered. The strobe<\/span> had a delay<\/span> timer, so I could<\/span> dial in delay to catch\nlater parts of the splash, and took a bazillion<\/span> pictures on old B&W film\nthat I then<\/span> developed myself in the high-school darkroom. (This was\nprobably my last serious use of a camera<\/span> until 20+ years later I fell<\/span> back\ninto photography when I bought a Nikon<\/span> D200<\/a>.)<\/p>\n\n

Based on all these photos, I postulated<\/span> how the various forces in\nphysics worked together to explain what I saw,<\/span> from the crown, the “jewels”\non the crown, the\n“old faithful” appearing later, etc. Now that I<\/span> think about it, I should<\/span> have been able to find all this in the library, but at the time it\napparently didn't occur to me, and I derived<\/span> it all myself.<\/p>\n\n

At the science fair, some officials would come around and ask questions,\nand one guy in particular really gave me the third degree, especially about\nthe force interactions toward the end of the splash. I though<\/span> it was a bit<\/span>\nweird that he was so interested, but I was<\/span> able to answer all his\nquestions.... until he asked “where else in nature do you see this?”. Huh?\nWhat kind of question is that? In a rainshower<\/span>, I guess.<\/span> I dunno.<\/span> I had no<\/span>\nidea what he was after, and probing on my part didn't reveal a clue,<\/span> so in\nthe most literal sense, I was totally<\/span> clueless.<\/p>\n\n

And with that, I found<\/span> out later, I missed<\/span> Best of Show, and it was\ngranted to someone else. In retrospect, I find it<\/span> hard to believe that a\nbunch<\/span> of photos of water splashes could even be considered interesting, so\nmaybe I'm misremembering the details. I do remember<\/span>, vaguely, seeing the\nexhibit that did win and thought that it was a heck<\/span> of a lot<\/span> better than\nmine.<\/p>\n\n

Anyway, I also found<\/span> out that the answer the guy wanted was the little\nmountain found in the center of impact craters on the moon. The forces<\/span> of\nimpact reverberate throughout the body of the moon, then reflect right back\nto the point of impact, giving the presumably molten rock a bit<\/span> of a push<\/span>\nupward, sort of like the “old faithful” above. Or something<\/span> like that.<\/p>\n\n

\n\n

By the way, about the milk carton, the “Milk as Milked” refers to the\nfact that the percent of fat is not controlled, but natural (as opposed to\n“lowfat” or “2% milk” common in The States). Japanese milk generally is\nleft like this. Americans, used to watered-down milk, sometimes think that\nJapanese milk has had sugar added. But it hasn<\/span>'t.... it's milk as milked\n(assuming, of course, that the cow udder has a pasteurizer<\/span> built in. \ud83d\ude42 .)<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Anthony noticed a crown-shaped image on a carton of milk (seen at right), and asked what it was. I explained that it was what happens when a drop of milk splashes, and he was quite interested, though somewhat skeptical.<\/p>

I promised to show him, explaining that it was too fast for the eye to notice, but that we could use a camera to stop the action. His interest was piqued.<\/p>

I set the camera up on a tripod, got a black dish and put some milk in it, set my SB-800 flash as a slave on 1\/64 manual power and [...]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,1,2,3,4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1228"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1228"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1228\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}