Thursday July 19 2007

We are trying to perfect our wrinkling techniques. This field of study is procedurally intensive and requires much practice before we can generate useful data. Because we are working on a nanoscale, the slightest imprecision in drop delivery or film preparation is magnified in our calculations. We each make three films, then float and wrinkle them, recording our results with photographs. The images are downloaded from the digital camera onto the computer, then we upload them onto our jump drives and bring them back to the Conte computer lab for measurement and calculations using Image J and Origin software packages. We spend quite a bit of time discussing how we could reproduce this experience in the classroom. Saran Wrap or any commercially available "membrane" is too thick to form wrinkles. We finally decided the closest we could come would be to wrinkle the film that forms on pudding as it sits in the refrigerator.