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Drop (liquid)

(Redirected from Droplet)


A drop is a small volume of liquid, bounded completely or almost completely by free surfaces. The simplest way to form a drop is to allow liquid to flow slowly from the lower end of a vertical tube of small diameter. When the pendant drop exceeds a certain size it is no longer stable and detaches itself. Drops may also be formed by the condensation of a supercooled vapor or by atomization of a larger mass of liquid. The weight of the largest drop that can hang from the end of a tube of radius a is nearly

mg=2πaλ cos α

where λ is the surface tension of the liquid and α is the angle of contact with the tube. This relationship is the basis of a convenient method of measuring surface tension.

Due to the different refractive index of water and air, refraction and reflection occur on the surfaces of raindrops, leading to rainbow formation.


Last updated: 10-12-2005 20:27:32
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