>> by simple visual tricks like this. I also enjoy watching fire, and I
>> used to sit and watch the washing machine. Sometimes I sit and watch
>> rain, or river turbulence... I guess I'm just stupid.
> 
> Oh no, not at all! Fire is one of the most fascinating things to watch, 
> you can spend all the time closely watching and you'll never notice the 
> animation looping (just kidding!).

Mmm, I guess it counts as a kind of complex reaction-diffusion system...

> The same with rivers etc... I also enjoy watching the waves at the shore.

Not so much waves, but where water runs across sand, it rapidly erodes 
complex "river systems" into the perfect surface. I find this fascinating.

In fact, it seems I've developed a family reputation. Take me to a sand 
beach, and likely the first thing I do is to dig a hole in the sand. 
People wonder why I just dig a hole and then look at it.

If you dig deep enough, you find water. And if you keep removing sand 
from the middle of the hole, the turbulence of the water undercuts the 
sides. And eventually they cave in. Theoretically, if you keep digging 
in this manner, you could make a very wide, shallow hole. But usually by 
this point the tidy comes in, and you watch the fluid dynamics as the 
waves wash over the edge of the hole and fill it on. And...

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

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