| A conical bubble collapse with sufficient violence as to cause luminescene (and erosion etc.). Click here for a formal report on the study. The photograph to the right shows, not only the device (also shown below left), but in the foreground a model of it (the 'ultraloo'), built by the technicians of the PCS Workshop, Cavendish Laboratory and presented to Prof Leighton when he left Cambridge. This model is also shown below (right). A small bubble is placed at the tip of a conical hollow in a PMMA block (the tip of the conical hollow appears as a shadow), which is otherwise water-filled and connected to a U-tube (also water-filled). The upper end of the U-tube is closed, and the pressure reduced in order to make the bubble grow. After the count of 'Three, two, one', the chain is pulled, the lid of the U-tube is thrown off by springs, and a 1 bar pressure wave travels down the water column and collapses the bubble in to the cone. The compressed gas reaches high temperatures and pressures for a short period, and luminesces at the tip of the cone. (Video: TG Leighton) |
 |
 |
 |
This page was last updated by TG Leighton, 6 August 2004