With small droplets, gravity usually has little effect compared to surface tension. An evaporating water droplet holds its spherical shape as it evaporates. But the story is different when you Keep reading
Tag: sessile drop
Free Contact Lines
How a simple drop of water sits on a surface is a strangely complicated question. The answer depends on the droplet’s size, its chemistry, the roughness of the surface, and Keep reading
Surface Jets in Coalescing Droplets
What goes on when droplets merge is tough to observe, even with a high-speed camera. There are many factors at play: any momentum in the droplets, surface tension, gravity, and Keep reading
Dissolving
It looks like the fiery edge of a star’s corona, but this photo actually shows a dissolving droplet. The droplet, shown as the lower dark region in this shadowgraph image, Keep reading
Pinning a Drop
The shape of a droplet sitting on a surface depends, in part, on its surface tension properties but also on the nanoscale roughness of the surface. Small variations in the Keep reading
The Droplet Slide
One of the joys of science is the sense of discovery that can come even from looking at something seemingly simple. Take, for example, a water droplet sitting on a Keep reading