Worthington mercury droplet splash

This animation is assembled from A. M. (Arthur Mason) Worthington's drawings of .15 inch diameter mercury droplets falling from 3 inches onto a glass plate. Some of these were drawn as early as 1876, using a nearby spark for very brief illumination. The thirty drawings from "The Splash of a Drop" 1894, are at different phases of the splash, separated by about 1/600 sec., using machines that could repeatably produce a drop and vary the timing of the spark. He refined his equipment and techniques over several decades, eventually moving to photography.


Worthington, a physics professor, wrote and spoke eloquently about his methods, observations, and the physics behind drops and splashes, much of which is summarized in his 1908 book A Study of Spashes. Souce images, other formats and references: http://lcni.uoregon.edu/~mark/Projects/Splashes/Worthington_mercury_droplet_s...

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Worthington
• splash
• mercury
• droplet
• drawings