Strange water phenomenon - Smarter Every Day

Please help me understand what is going on here. Like I mention in the video, the temperature was ABOVE freezing and snow was melting. This water was running from a spring type source and falling into a pool. It's not the Leidenfrost effect, but it looks just like it.
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From WBeaty:

Here's an article ref about the droplets:

C.L. Stong, "Curious Bubbles in Which a Gas Encloses a Liquid Instead of the Other Way Around", Scientific American Magazine, THE AMATEUR SCIENTIST, April 1974

The key to the effect is EXTREMELY CLEAN WATER. Usually we don't see the droplets, since any microscopic crap on the water surface will let the droplets "pop" and merge into the water surface. With clean water, they last a couple of seconds. With extremely clean water they'll last far longer. Also see:

http://amasci.com/amateur/antibub/antibub1.html
http://www.antibubble.org/page2.shtml

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Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

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• Productions
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[kasroa]

I get the same effect when I drag my Styrofoam cup full of tea across the table in work. The vibrations cause the surface of the tea to vibrate in many bizarre patterns. At a certain volume the vibrations cause small droplets to appear and glide across the surface in exactly the same way as in this video.

[destinws2]

@kasroa

Ooo... cool!

[gravelstone8]

The nearby rock can be giving off a surfactant. A surfactant is a soap like substance that can bind to polar molecules and nonpolar ones as well. The hydrophilic end of the surfactant attaches to the water and the hydrophobic end allows it to "float" or "skate" on top of the water (since the hydrophobic end will repel the water below it). We can see that the rock is porous because there is moss growing from it. Also, in the video we see the water droplets are dripping from the nearby rock face.

[destinws2]

@gravelstone8

What exactly is a surfactant?

[brianferry123]

Hey I had to come back would this be the Leidenfrost effect

[destinws2]

@brianferry123

No, that has to do with a layer of steam keeping a bead of water skirting around on a cushion of air. This is more likely "antibubbles"

[destinws2]

@GlenStorageCenter

First time I've been called the "villege idiot". I will consider this a demotion from my current position of village idiot.

[snowhare]

Christ in a bucket people. I answer the man's question with the *correct* name of the effect (antibubbles) and it gets flagged as spam? If you don't understand something that doesn't make it spam.

[knifemakejake]

perhaps the moss effects the PH of the water slightly, and the resulting difference is enough change surface tensions? I see the same thing when I'm washing my car

[MegaHammer12345]

ice sicles yayyyy

[XepptizZ]

There was a time warp episode about this, it actually always happens when raining, just faster. I'd reckon that the increased density simply enforced the effect.

[JDMachinima]

I think it has something to do with the density of water that is in a frozen state. Those water droplets that rest atop the others are in a pseudofrozen state, due to their contact with cold air, and wind from there fall. Therefore they act almost like solid water. Solid water is less dense than liquid water (the reason ice cubes float in a drink), therefore the droplets act as tiny ice cubes that float upon the denser surface. Im just a physics student, but thats the most logical answer.

[persiansthebest]

@destinws2 well i saw the same thing at the science centre in canada. It was an experiment were we used our hands and made vibrations on a bole, then little bubbles started to pop out. It was really cool

[Just1Spark]

Sorry, heres the correct part. watch?v=BTGxrLqCOCo

[Just1Spark]

Here is the answer. watch?v=ubka5f1vUC8 Stan Dayo This guy duplicates this effect with Coka Cola.

[sethelliotttaylor]

It may just be happening because of water being cohesive

[drdewburger]

This happens with oils too. I would go with what 4forpengs said.