MAGNETOSTATIC INSTABILITIES IN PLANE LAYERS OF MAGNETIZABLE LIQUIDS.

Some magnetostatic instabilities are investigated in plane layers of a magnetic liquid in a magnetic field normal to the layer, which exhibits qualitative agreement with theoretical and experimental conclusions. In the first section authors consider theoretically the elliptical instability of a cylindrical drop of a magnetic liquid in a plane layer with a magnetic field normal to the layer, and they give the results of the experimental investigation of this phenomenon. In the second section, under analogous conditions, they investigate theoretically the instability of an infinite strip with respect to flexural perturbations ( ″serpentine″ instability) and with respect to the disintegration of the strip into individual drops ( ″overextension″ instability), and give the experimental results of the observations of ″serpentine″ instability.