Contest on Red. H2O on Cotoneaster, Our Garden, Venlo, The Netherlands
Pottering about a bit in our Snowy Garden this morning, my Sonyeye became intrigued by this Winter Brightness. Almost violently red Cotoneaster Berries are vying with Gravity - can't show you that - over the fortunes of an H2O-droplet. Amazing forces of Nature form such a droplet. Water molecules would rather band together than bond with other kinds such as air. This desire for proximity to each other causes their spherical shape - a bit technically: a sphere has the smallest possible surface area to volume ratio. What looks like an 'elastic membrane' around the droplet is in fact its surface tension, caused by that central molecular binding. This tension is quite something: it makes it possible for example for small insects to walk on water.
In the photo, our water droplet is not a sphere. It's pendant, pulled out of shape by the force of gravity. And fell into a snowy grave just as Sony did its thing.
Contest on Red. H2O on Cotoneaster, Our Garden, Venlo, The Netherlands
Pottering about a bit in our Snowy Garden this morning, my Sonyeye became intrigued by this Winter Brightness. Almost violently red Cotoneaster Berries are vying with Gravity - can't show you that - over the fortunes of an H2O-droplet. Amazing forces of Nature form such a droplet. Water molecules would rather band together than bond with other kinds such as air. This desire for proximity to each other causes their spherical shape - a bit technically: a sphere has the smallest possible surface area to volume ratio. What looks like an 'elastic membrane' around the droplet is in fact its surface tension, caused by that central molecular binding. This tension is quite something: it makes it possible for example for small insects to walk on water.
In the photo, our water droplet is not a sphere. It's pendant, pulled out of shape by the force of gravity. And fell into a snowy grave just as Sony did its thing.