DesertFox
10-06-2007, 02:42 PM
British scientists have managed to make drops of water defy gravity by flowing uphill.
Researchers achieved the unlikely feat by vigorously vibrating the droplets. The force created when they bulged upwards as the surface they were on dropped was enough to make them trickle up a steep slope.
Small raindrops on windscreens can remain in place due to surface tension, until they grow to a size where this force is overcome by gravity.
Mathematicians have now demonstrated small drops of various different liquids can be made to move up gradients as steep as 85 degrees.
More (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2007/10/05/sciwater105.xml)
Researchers achieved the unlikely feat by vigorously vibrating the droplets. The force created when they bulged upwards as the surface they were on dropped was enough to make them trickle up a steep slope.
Small raindrops on windscreens can remain in place due to surface tension, until they grow to a size where this force is overcome by gravity.
Mathematicians have now demonstrated small drops of various different liquids can be made to move up gradients as steep as 85 degrees.
More (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2007/10/05/sciwater105.xml)