Bang But No Splash

BishopBerkeley writes "When a drop of ethanol is dropped on a surface at low pressures (1/5 atmosphere or less), it makes no splash. Science offers a brief synopsis and fascinating pictures of the phenomenon. The results seem to confirm the (perhaps counterintuitive) prediction that more viscous liquids are more likely to splash, not less likely . Links to the researchers' home page at U of Chicago (as of now, the site is timing out) and pdf version of the article on arxiv can be found on the Science page also."

Ethanol

[KiloByte]

Uh oh. Someone left some ethanol next to bored scientists again.

People like my friends know the right thing to do, but it appears that this knowledge is not common enough.

Hmm

[iLEZ]

" Your Subscription does not grant access to this item: Full Text : Cho,Sucking Away the Splatter, ScienceNOW 2005: 4"

Sounds like a whole different kind of webpage..

Bang AND splash

[Anonymous Coward]

When a few drops of ethyl alcohol are dropped into a low-tolerance system, you get bangs, splashes, crashes, all kinds of stuff.

More study is clearly needed.

since the article is already /.

[leuk_he]

(1 seems to be subscription only, other is alredy /.?)

Lets continue doing those experiments with alcohol ourself. In a plane. Mixed with lots of water (beer) , mixed with less water (jenever). Ans splashing.

Anything more useful to report about alcohol abuse?

Re:slow day eh ...

[govtcheez]

They're just showing off how many servers they can crush.

Re:Camera - OT

[cluke]

Good job too. Imagine leaving that into the chemist to get developed. "Just the the one set of my 47,000 prints please". And then you get them all back with a 'photography tips' sticker on as you had your thumb over the lens.

Re:Nice!

[Eccles]

Your Free Registration does not grant access to this item:
Full Text : Cho,Sucking Away the Splatter,

With a title like that, you would think it's "adult" content they're charging for...

Re:We know quarks, but not this...

[That's Unpossible!]

Yeah, but did the milk SPLASH when it hit the vacuum tanker?

And did you cry about it subsequently?

elegant

[FLOOBYDUST]

Science at its best. Their explanation passes the three fingers rule. If a complicated subject can be distilled into a written answer that makes sense and can be covered with three fingers, that is elegance. However, don't be confused with answers that makes sense after ingesting three fingers of straight ethanol......

Re:As Dave Barry pointed out....

[That's Unpossible!]

Yes, but they only decided to proceed on the nuclear bombs when they realized dropping intermittent wipers on the Japanese would not end the war.

I think this is the ink application they mentioned

[kb9vcr]

Note: This printer has been designed to work in a low atomosphere environment for optimal ink transfers. Reduce air pressure to 17.2 kPa before printing else warrenty will be VOID.

Bang But No Splash

[williecdog]

I don't know about you guys, but this sounds like an effective form a birth control....

Re:As Dave Barry pointed out....

[RobiOne]

Yes, but immagine the Japanese's horror if they did drop intermittent wipers all over them!

They'd think we'd wipe them out.

Finally my question has been answered:

[kramerino]

If a drop of ethanol is dropped on a surface at low pressures (1/5 atmosphere or less), and nobody else is around to see it, does it make a splash?

An obvious case of the

[madris]

"splash-drop" effect.

Re:further research

[Anonymous Coward]

This doesn't make any sense. It can't be a vacuum, there's milk in there.

what a waste!

[Stankatz]

When a drop of ethanol is dropped on a surface...