Friday, 25 January 2019

fluid dynamics - Why does water pouring from a glass sometimes travel down the side of the glass?



If you have a glass of water, say, three quarters full and you pour it at an angle of say, $45^{\circ}$ with respect to the the table, the water comes out of the glass and goes directly down towards the floor.


However, when the glass is more full, or even three quarters full and the 'angle of pouring' is far less with respect the table, when the water comes out of the glass, rather than going straight down it kind of stays stuck to the glass and travels down the outside of it.


Why does this happen? (I'm sure many of you have observed it yourself by accident and ended up making a mess).



Answer



This is due to surface tension. Water wants to stick to hard surfaces as this is a lower energy arrangement. Component of gravity perpendicular to glass pulls water away from glass wall, and surface tension pulls water to glass wall. When the angle between glass wall and vertical direction is small, component of gravity perpendicular to glass wall is small and surface tension prevails.


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