High speed video reveals the bizarre physics of an ordinary water droplet

Wow..
To my uneducated mind it looks as though the water droplet is breaking the laws of physics..

Really awesome I love all this slowmo stuff.

The video is of an effect known in fluid dynamics as the coalescence cascade, which can be observed (provided you have access to a video camera with a sufficiently high frame rate) when a drop of liquid is deposited very gently onto the surface of a layer of the same liquid.

When a droplet impacts a pool at low speed, a layer of air trapped beneath the droplet can often prevent it from immediately coalescing into the pool. As that air layer drains away, surface tension pulls some of the droplet's mass into the pool while a smaller droplet is ejected. When it bounces off the surface of the water, the process is repeated and the droplet grows smaller and smaller until surface tension is able to completely absorb it into the pool.

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We only have to look around us if we want to see something beautiful!

S&F! Awesome video, thanks for posting this. Its absolutely amazing!

Fascinating and very beautiful to watch.
The progressively smaller droplets bouncing up then settling on the surface is like some hidden dance that probably happens dozens of times a day in front of us yet happens so fast we never notice it.

You can actually observe this effect with the naked eye. I have many times, standing over the washing up bowl, as I scrub plates, but watching the water drip from the bottom most rim of the plate, into the water less than an inch below. I believe the laypersons term is the "Anti Bubble" effect.

Very cool, never heard about that... High speed cameras are amazing

Does temperature, or type of liquid effect this?

WOW S&F!

You have forever changed my perspective of rain drops!

So cool, some of the most amazing stuff the see in this universe never gets seen because its either too small or too fast. But now with the help of modern technology we are opening our eyes to this hidden world.

The droplet getting smaller and smaller looks fractal, have there been any formulas that describe this what's happening to the water droplet and can be used to predict it happening?

Originally posted by MrSpiderMonkey
So cool, some of the most amazing stuff the see in this universe never gets seen because its either too small or too fast. But now with the help of modern technology we are opening our eyes to this hidden world.

The droplet getting smaller and smaller looks fractal, have there been any formulas that describe this what's happening to the water droplet and can be used to predict it happening?

Originally posted by morder1
Very cool, never heard about that... High speed cameras are amazing

Does temperature, or type of liquid effect this?

To answer both questions..
I have absolutely no idea!

That is awesome! I must of just sat and watched that first video about 10 times. Sooo cool. Now off to Youtube to find more videos of things in slow motion.

reply to post by TechUnique


Very beautiful indeed and confirms that our eyes do deceive us even in the simple everyday events.
The fact that we only at least consciously register a certain frame rate of reality means we miss out on a lot of detail. As for breaking the laws of physics I think the video rather confirms that the surface tension and hydrogen bonding in water is special and perhaps the reason why life as we know it on earth is pretty much dependent on this substance.

If you watch the video and bare in mind that nothing ever touches anything else there is always a space between then add the fantastic surface tension properties of water and perhaps as someone suggests fractal thinking to it then it makes sense. However, regardless of how much sense it makes it is incredibly beautiful to see in action.

Life still has some amazing things to show us and I am in awe of nature daily.

S&F for the sheer enjoyment in watching that.

much love and light

Awesome dude. Very awesome.

Originally posted by MrSpiderMonkey
So cool, some of the most amazing stuff the see in this universe never gets seen because its either too small or too fast.

Maybe we are just a droplet? ~$heopleNation

surface tension meeting surface tension