Huge smoke rings from a big metal drum, a rubberised sheet and a fog machine. They can travel 50 m in still air and are utterly fascinating to watch.
For more details with 10 photos and a popular YouTube.
The rings in a lecture theatre (with smoke detectors turned off) being lit by a projector. (Perhaps a use for the Windows blue screen of death).
These photos show an oscillation that develops in a slow moving ring (the top one) is passed nearby by a faster ring. The slow moving ring becomes ellipsoidal in each axis alternately which lasts for several cycles.
Not a UFO – just the picture tipped sideways
Above: A sunset shot of multiple smoke rings and a ring passing into a tree with the physics building in the background. The flash fired for this one giving a strange quality.
I am now mobile with my vortex generator. My 300W Honda generator is a bit weak for the 700W smoke generator so has to run through a variac and takes longer to heat.
Add a lick of paint, wheels and a trailer and I can take it anywhere. Had vague ideas of the kids having a small business hiring this out for kiddies birthdays and the like. I still would like to make a huge one to fire vertically. Or a truck sized one to fire at crowds at events.
Above shows the long range shots taken in a school gym for the Discovery Channel video. They show the range of the smoke rings and the clarity after a long run. These are going at walking pace and tend to drift up being slightly warm from the smoke generator.
Also on Youtube 453,087 views, Break 527,865 views, 310 comments and Myspace 247,748 views 515 comments. That’s over a million views not including my website.
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Photo Date: 2006, 2013