Fluid Flow · Interactive

The Fourth-Power Faucet

Widen a tube a little and the flow doesn’t creep up — it leaps. Drag the width below and watch reality pull away from what your intuition drew.

The Widening

One tube, adjustable width. Everything else — length, push, fluid — held fixed.

dashed = baseline width
2.00×Tube width
16.00×Flow through it

Smooth or Rough?

The clean law lives in the world of laminar flow. Push hard enough and it dissolves into turbulence.

Laminar Reynolds number: 0

The fourth-power law assumes smooth, steady, laminar flow of a simple (Newtonian) fluid through a straight, rigid tube. Honey stays laminar at any speed you can set here; thin water tips into turbulence once it’s pushed fast — watch the badge flip.

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