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Published online 19 May 2006 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news060515-17
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Geometric whirlpools revealed
Recipe for making symmetrical holes in water is easy.
Bizarre geometric shapes that appear at the centre of swirling vortices in planetary atmospheres might be explained by a simple experiment with a bucket of water.
Researchers at the Technical University of Denmark in Lyngby have created similar geometric shapes (holes in the form of stars, squares, pentagons and hexagons) in whirlpools of water in a cylindrical bucket1.
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