I was back in the open-air university swimming pool yesterday. It was raining (inevitably), not that that really makes a difference. (I’m always amazed why the pool is so empty when its raining – as if it makes a difference to how damp you get).
With a nice rainstorm going overhead I got to see some unusual views of water droplet splashes – rather similar to the one I’ve pasted here from http://www.foto-art-design.cz/gifts.html. If you get your eyes close to water level, the view is pretty impressive, with little cylinders of water rising up a couple of centimetres from the surface for maybe a quarter of a second – just long enough to take it in before it vanishes.
Explaining just why a falling droplet makes such a tower when it hits the surface is something I won’t try to do – since the governing physics is non-linear it’s not a straightforward process.
Joseph says:
Liquid droplets certainly are things of beauty when viewed this closely. Their behaviour when viewed with high speed cameras is even more impressive, as this clip from Discovery Channel programme Time Warp demonstrates:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jwYaiwD0xk
Marcus Wilson says:
Unfortunately my eyes don’t work that fast