When a drop settles gently against a pool of the same liquid, it will coalesce. The process is not always a complete one, though; sometimes a smaller droplet breaks away Keep reading
Tag: coalescence cascade
Droplet Bounce
A droplet falling on a liquid bath may, if slow enough, rebound off the surface. Its impact sends out a string of ripples — capillary waves — on the bath’s Keep reading
Coalescence in Heavy Metal Droplets
When a drop of water falls into a pool, it doesn’t always coalesce immediately. Instead, it can go through a coalescence cascade in which the drop partially coalesces, a daughter Keep reading
The Coalescence Cascade and Surfactants
Drops of a liquid can often join a pool gradually through a process known as the coalescence cascade (top left). In this process, a drop sits atop a pool, separated Keep reading
Growing Droplets on a Trampoline
Droplets on a liquid surface will typically coalesce, thanks to gravity and the low viscosity of the air layer between them and the pool. In certain cases, droplets will partially Keep reading
Droplet Bounce
Water droplets don’t always immediately disappear into a pool they’re dropped onto. If the droplet is small and doesn’t have much momentum, it will join the pool gradually through a Keep reading
Bubbles and Films Merging
As we’ve seen before, a water droplet can merge gradually with a pool through a coalescence cascade. It turns out that the coalescence of a soap bubble with a soap Keep reading
Coalescence Cascade
The simple coalescence of a drop with a pool is more complicated than the human eye can capture. Fortunately, we have high-speed cameras. Here a droplet coalesces by what is Keep reading
Bouncing Atop a Pool
When slowed down, everyday occurrences, like a drop of water falling into a pool, can look absolutely extraordinary. When a falling drop has low momentum, it doesn’t simply disappear into Keep reading
Reader Question: Non-Coalescing Droplets
Reader ancientavian asks: I’ve often noticed that, when water splashes (especially as with raindrops or other forms of spray), often it appears that small droplets of water skitter off on Keep reading