Why Raindrops are Different Sizes

Ever wondered why raindrops are different sizes? Well, a French research institute set out to find out why.

The footage overturns the accepted view of why raindrops are different sizes and shows how they change shape during their descent and then explode.

A hundred years after the first research into raindrop size — the question has finally been answered.

Professor Emmanuel Villermaux of Aix-Marseille University said the accepted view was that raindrops collide and either or merge as they fall — but that can now be put to rest.

[Prof. Emmanuel Villermaux, Aix-Marseille University]:
"There is a topological change of the drop from the spherical shape to a pancake shape which then evolves towards a kind of a balloon shape, a bag shape, which bursts giving rise to poly-dispersed fragments in size."

The research involved dropping water into a stream of air and filming the result at the French Natural Phenomena Research Institute.

Their work is part of a bigger program examining liquid behavior in industrial applications and it wont change the way we predict the weather.

[Prof. Emmanuel Villermaux, Aix-Marseille University]:
"This will not impact much the vision we have about the climate, the precipitation and stuff. It brings a new light on a known phenomenon and it advances the knowledge we have about break-up phenomena in general in nature."

It seems knowing what a raindrop is doing as it falls is one thing, knowing when its going to fall is another entirely.

The footage overturns the accepted view of why raindrops are different sizes and shows how they change shape during their descent and then explode.

A hundred years after the first research into raindrop size — the question has finally been answered.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• ntd
• ntdtv
• news
• raindrops
• French
• Natural
• Phenomena
• research
• institute
• Professor
• Emmanuel Villermaux
• Aix-Marseille
• University
• topological
• industrial
• weather
• nature
• knowledge

[DirtyBird760]

slow news day?