Thursday, October 25, 2012

'Freeze ray' powder reveals ice-cream-shaped water

Jacob Aron, reporter

It's not quite a freeze ray, but it's pretty close. A new technique can now "freeze" the structure of water droplets as they bounce, revealing unusual shapes.

Jeremy Marston and colleagues from King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Thuwal, Saudi Arabia, discovered the phenomenon by dripping water onto a surface coated with an extremely water-repellent powder. Tiny particles fully covered drops on impact, preserving them in their deformed state. The video of the process above reveals water that looks like ice cream and a bowling pin.

The team found that the shape "froze" only when a smaller satellite drop was ejected along with the main one (see video). A minimum impact speed of 1.6 metres per second was also required for the effect to occur with water. Bizarre shapes were also observed when more viscous liquids were used, such as drops containing glycerol.

The research will be presented next month at the American Physical Society's Division of Fluid Dynamics conference in San Diego, California.

If you enjoyed this post, watch hovering water droplets move like UFOs or see how drops can tap-dance to the beat.

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