The Splash of a Drop

by A. M. Worthington

INSTANTANEOUS PHOTOGRAPHS OF THE SPLASH OF A WATER-DROP FALLING ABOUT 16 INCHES INTO MILK.

Time after contact = ·0262 sec.

Time after contact = ·0391 sec.

Time after contact = ·101 sec.

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THE SPLASH OF A DROP

The splash of a drop is a transaction which is accomplished in the twinkling of an eye, and it may seem to some that a man who proposes to discourse on the matter for an hour must have lost all sense of proportion. If that opinion exists, I hope this evening to be able to remove it, and to convince you that we have to deal with an exquisitely regulated phenomenon, and one which very happily illustrates some of the fundamental properties of fluids. It may be mentioned also that the recent researches of Lenard in Germany and J.J. Thomson at Cambridge, on the curious development of electrical charges that accompanies certain kinds of splashes, have invested with a new interest any examination of the mechanics of the phenomenon. It is to the mechanical and not to the electrical side of the question that I shall call your attention this evening.