Water drop dance filming

2002/06/20 Elhuyar Zientzia

• Fisika

French researchers have been able to record the appearance and movement of a drop by hitting the surface. They are only a few milliseconds, but spectacular. Thanks to the film they have been able to better understand the dynamics of the drops and what they learned will serve to design better aerosols.

The drops of different sizes have been poured at different speeds on a material that mimics natural surfaces and, before bouncing, have seen that the energy of the shock is absorbed and deformed. If the drops are poured at low speed, they flatten; they quickly acquire the form of a frightened pyramid and, even faster, they lengthen and thin, adopting the form of a baseball bat. Depending on the pour speed, the drops can take on very different shapes.

However, the contact time of the drop with the surface does not depend on the spill speed, but on the size of the drop. Large drops maintain longer contact and have lower oscillations. Radius drops 0.1 mm touch the surface less than one millisecond before it takes off again. Thick drops of 4 mm pass a tenth of the second inns on a surface.

Water droplet dances can be seen on the Nature magazine website.