纽约大学的数学家团队通过设计和测试各种形状的"奇异喷头"，解决了困扰物理学家数十年的费曼喷头问题。[1]该研究由Leif Ristroph及其Courant数学计算与数据科学学院的同事完成，研究成果已发表在《美国国家科学院院刊》2026年第123卷第30期上。[1]
研究的核心发现是，喷头的旋转由水流的动量驱动，而非Ernst Mach理论或费曼等人提出的外部水流理论所解释。[1]2024年的研究曾表明反向喷头的旋转速度比普通喷头慢约50倍。[1]这一突破性成果可帮助工程师设计更高效的流体驱动机器。[1]该研究由国家科学基金会资助，资助编号分别为DMS-2407787和DMS-2407788。[1]
A research team at New York University has resolved a decades-long physics puzzle by demonstrating that sprinkler rotation is driven by the angular momentum of flowing water, contrary to earlier theoretical explanations.[1] Led by Leif Ristroph at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, the team designed and tested various unconventional sprinkler shapes—dubbed "silly sprinklers"—to investigate the mechanisms behind the phenomenon first posed by physicist Richard Feynman.[1]
The findings reveal that sprinkler rotation originates from the momentum flux of water flow itself, rather than from external water currents or other theories previously proposed by Ernst Mach and Feynman.[1] Previous research from 2024 had shown that reverse-flow sprinklers spin approximately 50 times slower than conventional sprinklers, a clue the team leveraged in their investigation.[1] The research, authored by Jesse Etan Smith, Mingxuan Zuo, Will Kuhlke, Brennan Sprinkle, and Leif Ristroph, was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in 2026, Volume 123, Issue 30.[1] The work received support from the National Science Foundation through grants DMS-2407787 and DMS-2407788.[1] According to the researchers, these findings could assist engineers in designing more efficient fluid-driven machinery.[1]