When water droplets sit on a cold substrate, they freeze into a shape with a pointed tip. At first glance, this behavior seems very odd since surface tension usually acts Keep reading
Tag: water droplets
Vibrating Droplets
When still, water drops sitting on a surface are roughly hemispherical, drawn into that shape by surface tension. But on a vibrating surface, the same water drop displays many different Keep reading
Making Metal Water-Repellent
Chemical treatments can be used to render metals hydrophobic, causing water to bead on the surface rather than spreading to wet it. Treating the surface by immersing it in boiling water Keep reading
Frozen Powder Drops
Droplet impacts on granular surfaces and water interactions with superhydrophobic surfaces are not unfamiliar topics for FYFD. But this behavior of water droplets falling on a superhydrophobic powder is unusual, Keep reading
Bouncing Off
A water droplet falling onto a superhydrophobic surface will rebound and bounce without wetting the surface. Capillary and internal waves reflect in the drop until it comes to rest at Keep reading
Breaking Water with Sound
Previously we saw how vibration could atomize a water droplet, breaking it into a spray of finer droplets. Here astronaut Don Pettit shows us what the process looks like in microgravity using Keep reading
Jumping Water Droplets
Superhydrophobic surfaces resist wetting from water, but it turns out they can also trigger interesting behaviors in the tiny droplets condensing on the surface. High-speed video reveals that when two Keep reading
Liquid Nitrogen and the Leidenfrost Effect
One of the tried and true cooking tips my mother gave me when I was younger was to test the temperature of my griddle before making pancakes by splashing a Keep reading
Playing Pac-Man with Water Droplets
The vibrations of a plate in the horizontal and vertical directions can be used to control the motion of a drop placed on the surface. Here a droplet of water Keep reading
Vibration-Induced Atomization
Atomization–breaking a liquid into a fine spay of droplets–is common in engines, printers, and in the shower. Here a droplet of water is placed on a thin metal diaphragm that Keep reading