The Plateau-Rayleigh instability is one that just about everyone has witnessed. It describes how a liquid jet breaks up into droplets. Notice the waviness in the jet before breakdown. The tiniest curvature in the jet causes an imbalance in the liquid’s pressure due to surface tension. Because the system is unstable, any small changes will become larger, ultimately resulting in the jet breaking into droplets.
Tag: surface tension
Fizziness in Space
Removing gravity has interesting effects on fluids. Here an astronaut aboard the ISS demonstrates what happens when Alka-Seltzer is added to water in microgravity.
Water Balloons in Microgravity
Sometimes you need microgravity in order to observe the neat effects of surface tension on a fluid. Also, I hear it’s a good excuse for popping water balloons on the Vomit Comet. #