Darcy’s Law explains it all
posted in OmegaDad, Science |OmegaDad is a great believer in Darcy’s Law; he can find applications of Darcy’s Law everywhere.
What is Darcy’s Law? Hm. Well, think of lots of snow melting on a mountain. What makes it sink into the ground and disseminate to other places? Darcy’s Law. In simplest terms, the movement of water through various materials is a function of pressure gradients. (I’m sure I’m getting this wrong, and OmegaDad–or some other True Believer–will correct me.)
While doing a follow-up on yesterday’s eggsperiment, I found another site that described some things you can do with the resulting nekkid eggs. The one experiment that caught my attention was to have two nekkid eggs; dump one in a container of water, the other in a container of corn syrup. Seal them up and wait a few days. The nekkid egg in the water will look pretty much the same; the one in the corn syrup will have shriveled up. (Yes, this has something to do with the previous two paragraphs.)
So. Last night I snuggled up with OmegaDad, and first drove him out of bed in a fit of worry that we had left our clothes shopping behind in Big City by merely asking him where the shopping bag was. Once that was done, and we were nicely spooned once again, I started whispering sweet nothings in his ear; to wit: A summary of the additional egg experiment. Now, I had read the explanation of the final result, and was curious as to OmegaDad’s response. So I waited a beat.
“Of course!” quoth OmegaDad. “Darcy’s Law!”
Wanting to be just that extra touch sure, I coyly asked him, “How so?”
“The water inside the egg will migrate outward into the corn syrup; in the water container, there will be water migrating inwards.”
Kewl: it was just as the explanation on the ‘net had said. My very own snuggling science explainer.
Then he went on: “And of course it would, because that’s how cell walls work anyway.”
“So, what–are eggs just one great big cell?!” I asked.
He turned over, and I could see him giving me an old-fashioned look in the dark, even if I couldn’t see him.
“Think. Eggs. Sperm. Cells. Think.”
“Oh. Duh.” Yes, indeedy-oh: a chicken egg is one great big cell. Duh.
There ya have it: Mushy romantic goings-on in the Omega Parental Bed. Sweet nothings. Deep emotional conversations. Darcy’s Law, cell membranes, and science experiments, all in one fell swoop.
