Monday, January 19, 2009

Dolphins and Silver Rings


  
The attached video is of dolphins playing with
silver colored rings which they have the ability to make under water
to  play with. It isn't known how they learn this, or if it's an
inbred ability.As if by magic the dolphin does a quick flip of its head and a silver
ring appears in front of its pointed beak. The ring is a solid, donut shaped bubble about 2-ft across, yet it doesn't
rise to the surface of the water! It stands upright in the water like a
magic doorway to an unseen dimension. The dolphin then pulls a small
silver  donut from the larger one. Looking at the twisting ring for one
 last time abite is taken from it, causing the small ring to collapse into a
thousands of tiny bubbles which head upward towards the water's
surface. After a few moments the dolphin creates another ring to play
with. There also seems to be a separate mechanism for producing small
rings, which a dolphin can accomplish by a quick flip of its head.
An explanation of how dolphins make these silver rings is that they are 'air-core vortex rings'.
Invisible,spinning vortexes in the water are generated from the tip of a
dolphin's dorsal fin when it is moving rapidly and turning. When
dolphins break the line, the ends are drawn together into a closed
ring. The higher velocity fluid  around the core
 of the vortex is at a lower pressure than the fluid
circulating farther away. Air is injected into the rings via bubbles
released from the dolphin's blowhole. The energy of the water vortex
is enough to keep the bubbles from rising for a reasonably few seconds
of play time.

3 comments:

NAK and The Residents of The Khottage Now With KhattleDog! said...

We've sat before but it just too khool not to watch again and again!

Hugz&Khysses,
Khyra

Anonymous said...

This is amazing Pamela! Thank you so much for sharing it. I had no idea they could do this and have never seen anything like it!

Hope you have a wonderful week♥

♥♥ The OP Pack ♥♥ said...

We saw this about a week ago - isn't it amazing. But dolphins are really rather unique creatures anyway. We love to watch them.