The following movies show zippering of a flexible train of rods
floating on a viscous liquid near a vertical wall. The
self-assembling dynamics of the trains are the results of the
capillary interaction between a wall and the train, and
non-capillary interactions due to inextensible connection
between the rods.
Related publications 1. D. Vella, H.-Y. Kim, and L.
Mahadevan, "The wall-induced motion of a floating
flexible train," Journal of Fluid Mechanics502,
89-98 (2004)
Zippering of 4 rods on ethylene glycol surface;
Quicktime movie The actual process takes
74 seconds.