r/tornado Human Detected 11d ago

Tornado Media DIY rope tornado

209 Upvotes

17 comments sorted by

View all comments

2

u/KING-PALM-MUSIC 10d ago

Wow! Crazy how the vortex is dancing outside of the fan blades for brief moments. I wonder if you could create a self sustaining tornado with a giant scale version of this. Even if it was short lived, that would be pretty insane! Could be a cool idea to test home construction designs against artificial tornadic winds

2

u/Willing_Throat3523 Human Detected 10d ago

I've tried seeing how long the vortex lasts after turning off the fans. When the main updraft fan is turned off, the vortex rapidly falls apart. If I keep the main fan on and turn off the fan that sources the vorticity, it lasts for quite a while before it ropes out. So I don't think it could be self sustaining unless you managed to create a continuous updraft. I like the idea of a giant version of this, it would be so cool to test stuff against it. Currently, the most it can do is throw bits of paper around.

2

u/Dragonfly_Artist32 4d ago

You should go to the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry! They have one! It's AMAZING.

1

u/Willing_Throat3523 Human Detected 4d ago

Just looked it up and it looks incredible! I've never seen such a huge tornado model. Hopefully one day I'll be able to see it irl.

1

u/Dragonfly_Artist32 4d ago

I hope you can too! I think it's around $30 per person, so if you ever find yourself in the area and you've got some spending money, there's a BUNCH of other cool stuff to see there too! ❤️