🚿90-year-old observes unique oscillation in bathroom, Arson attack cripples French rail, Airbus aces world's 1st aerial refueling at night

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90-year-old Israeli-American physicist Amnon Yariv has made a remarkable discovery in his bathroom.

While taking a shower during the COVID-19 pandemic, National Medal of Science laureate and wave dynamics expert Yariv observed a peculiar behavior of the shower head, which led him on a multi-year scientific journey.

The physicist’s findings, dubbed “Yariv’s groove,” could explain phenomena such as fluttering STOP signs and swinging suspension bridges, creating ripples for civil engineering and renewable energy harvesting. For more on this development, check out today’s Must-Read.

🔥Today’s job of the day as featured on jobs.interestingengineering.com:

> Cloud Network Engineer (Azure) 
> Staff/Sr. Staff DevOps Engineer

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🚿 90-year-old physicist finds new vibration mode, wind energy solution in bathroom

Yariv observed that his showerhead exhibts a unique bimodal oscillation when water flow increased. This oscillation combines two distinct movements: a pendulum-like swing and a twisting motion.

Surprisingly, these oscillations synchronize and reinforce each other instead of cancelling out.

Yariv spent the next years developing mathematical models to explain this behavior. The physicist’s work builds upon the single-mode oscillation model proposed by Michael Faraday and Lord Rayleigh.

🚄 ‘Massive arson attack’ cripples French high-speed rail on Olympics opening day

A coordinated series of attacks on France’s rail infrastructure has caused major disruptions to train services across the country, coinciding with the opening day of the 2024 Paris Olympics.

The attacks targeted crucial cables on lines connecting Paris to the western, northern, and eastern parts of France, resulting in numerous cancellations and delays.

The state-owned rail company SNCF has urged passengers to postpone their travel plans and avoid train stations if possible, warning that disruptions are likely to continue throughout the weekend as repairs are underway.

✈️ Dark Knight: Airbus A330 tanker aces world’s 1st aerial refueling at night

In a first in aviation history, the Airbus A330 multi-role tanker (MRTT) has completed an automatic air-to-air refueling (A3R) mission at night.

The versatile, combat-proven tanker achieved the milestone through a series of 10 flights conducted between May and June 2024, involving various fighters and another MRTT as receivers under different night illumination conditions.

The ability to perform night air-to-air refueling will enhance the Air Force’s capabilities, particularly for long-distance missions involving fighters and surveillance planes. Airbus attributed this success to new A3R night operation algorithms and advanced camera systems.

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IE QUIZ: THE RESULTS

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