an eye dropper makes a small sphere of water when it (a water drop) falls through the air. a straw makes a larger drop. a sphere of water from a gardern hose makes a large drop. what is the largest drop that can be made that will still have the integrity of a sphere ?
2006-12-27 12:51:02 · 5 answers · asked by wizard 4 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Physics
one would suppose the eye dropper does have water
2006-12-28 15:22:23 · update #1
Aside from wondering what IS in an eyedropper if not water, water in weightless conditions will form a sphere as large as you want within the limits of your water supply and the walls of the room (space station)
On earth, the limit is about 1/4" but to see it you have to use a long fall and high speed photography. Because the drop is falling and there is air resistance, it will bounce through a sphere form as it goes from one extended shape to another.
From an eyedropper, you gradually make the blob bigger and it stretches from its own weight until it falls off.
To make a large drop you have to make something that will hold the drop as long as possible then let go of it cleanly. Although I have not tried this, I expect the largest would be produced by a flat surface with a hole in the center. Adding water slowly would build up a supply on top and a drip would form below. The right combination of hole size and rate of adding water would cause the water in the drip to drag the rest of the water through while falling and form a big drop.
There are lots of sequential strobe pictures of drops forming, but few have a ruler showing the size.
2006-12-27 13:28:45 · answer #1 · answered by Mike1942f 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You are mistaken in your observations. The eye dropper makes the largest drop of water that can be made. Straws do not make any drops bigger, and a garden hose is ridiculous. The maximum drop size is limited by ghe surface tension of water.
2006-12-27 21:00:05 · answer #2 · answered by steve_geo1 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Though your observations are not true(the eye droper dose not contain water so it cannot be compared with the straw nor the garden hose) the less viscous the liquid the larger the drop. if the experiment was done carefully the drops would be the same size being that the contol variable(water) remains the same.
2006-12-27 21:00:03 · answer #3 · answered by Dr Knight M.D 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
To start from
any quantity of water what ever great should take a shape of sphere as this is the less surface for a given volume.
this is due to the surface tention force
but for very big dropes this will not be so clear.
2006-12-27 21:02:26 · answer #4 · answered by Mohamed K 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
an mc
2006-12-27 20:54:07 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 2⤋