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English: Ferrofluid, a paramagnetic fluid composed of nanoscale ferromagnetic particles suspended in a carrier fluid, was placed onto a glass plate. The edges of the glass plate are visible at the bottom of the image. A powerful N40 neodymium magnet was placed under the glass along with an iron rod to steepen the field. Spikes form, in a phenomenon called normal field instability, where the magnetic forces are great enough to overcome gravity and surface tension to align the fluid in a magnetically ideal manner.
Equipment
Canon 5D
100mm/f2.8 Macro at f/20
ISO 100, 1 second exposure
Background illumination provided by 240watts of 6500K high-cri fluorescent. Highlight illumination by photoflash reflected off a 4ft x 1.5 ft white matt panel, additional highlight illumination provided by a distant tungsten light and a set of deep violet LEDs at offset angles to preserve an appearance of depth otherwise lost in the 2D image.
Processing
RAW to 16bit conversion with dcraw
Slight rotation
Cropping to 4:3 aspect
Gain to bring background to white.
Minor cloning to remove sensor dust from background area
English: Ferrofluid, a paramagnetic fluid composed of nanoscale ferromagnetic particles suspended in a carrier fluid
Other languages:
Asturianu: Fierrofluidu, un fluidu paramagnéticu compuestu por partícules ferromagnétiques suspendíes nun fluidu.
Čeština: Ferrofluidní kapalina sestávající z mikroskopických ferromagnetických částeček uvězněných v nosné kapalině
Deutsch: Ferrofluid, eine auf magnetische Felder reagierende Flüssigkeit bestehend aus Nanometer großen magnetischen Partikeln, die in einer Trägerflüssigkeit suspendiert sind.
English: Ferrofluid, a paramagnetic fluid composed of nanoscale ferromagnetic particles suspended in a carrier fluid
Español: Ferrofluido, un líquido paramagnético compuesto por partículas ferromagnéticas suspendidas en un fluido.
Esperanto: Ferofluidaĵo estas paramagneta likvaĵo el nanometraj magnetaj metaleroj naĝantaj en fluidaĵo
{{Information |Description=Ferrofluid under the influence of a strong/steep magnetic field. |Source=By uploader |Date=2006-07-10 |Author=Gregory F. Maxwell |Permission=GFDL-1.2 }} Only low res copy contributed for now to avoid quality problems on the ima