K-H Instability

The first experiment always works out best

In the experiment results we saw here, the vortices all formed at the same time, however things don't always work out that way. The reason the video footage of this experiment is a pretty rough piece of work is that it is footage of our first attempt at the experiment, and we didn't pay much attention to production quality. After the first attempt, we tried numerous times to recreate our first success, but in the end failed to get any better footage of vortices forming at the same time.

An unfair experiment

This experiment was carried out a number of times as a class experiment, however preparation time usually took about two hours, and the experiment itself a mere second. On top of that, the student assigned to tipping the water tank (to cause the K-H instability) didn't even get to see that "one second" with his own eyes. While the students watching the tank from the front raised elated shouts, the student tipping the tank was always left asking "What? What's happening?". Worse, the student tipping the tank was usually the most conscientious member of the group who volunteered for the majority of the work.