CBC Quirks and Quarks: The math of the vortex (and more…)

Published: May 5, 2008, 2:18 pm

On Saturday’s Quirks and Quarks radio show from the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. host Bob McDonald talks with a Canadian physicist (mp3 audio link) about his study of vortices, their math, and the many past explorations of them. It’s a terrific piece, full of a scientist’s curiosity and method. One hears of noisy vortices and tornado prediction, vortices and galaxy structure, vortices and their manifestations as whirlpools and whirling perils spilling from aircraft wingtips, and more. And part way through the two remark on the physicist’s witness of odd geometric shapes appearing and disappearing in the cross sections of vortices, seen in the man’s laboratory setup - shapes such as pentagons and hexagons. Well! The Tracker wishes that McDonald had then asked his guest about any potential explanation, therein, for the hexagons and such seen rotating, nested, mysteriously, around Saturn’s south pole (see earlier post Space.com/USA Today: What's up

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