LiveScience's Research in Action

Surface Tension

Thursday August 23, 2007

More Images...

The patterns that can be produced by a fluid, like oil or water, on a non-stick surface will depend upon the amount of liquid and how much the liquid is repelled from the surface.

If you can adjust the level of stickiness or, in other words, control the surface tension, you can control the type of pattern that is formed. The researcher in this case, using fluorescent particles, was able to arrange the particles in tree-like formations where each limit contains thousands of the particles arranged in rows. While the arrangement of the particles can be seen, each of the individual particles is too small to be observed with your eye.

However, the type of pattern that is formed is related to the strength of the interactions of the liquid in which the particles are dispersed and the surface of the underlying support.

D. Nykypanchuk, University of Massachusetts Amherst

Advertisement

From the Blogs

LiveScience Blogs
  1. The Bug Hunt Is On. Target: Marine Aliens
  2. HARPS Discovery - HD 40307 And Its Three Super-Earths
  3. Can This British Columbia Lake Tell Us Something About Life On Other Planets?
  4. Power Equals Positive Action But Only When Acquired Legitimately
  5. X Chromosome Gets Some Respect As An Evolutionary Tool
  6. Estrogen Therapy May Limit Strokes In Women - But The Timing Has To Be Right
  7. Reminder: Garth Sundem's Foolproof Equations On The Science Channel Tonight At 6PM
  1. 6.15.2008 | Tariq Malik
    Father?s Day on Earth, in Space
    t’s Father’s Day on Earth, and just in time for the seven-astronaut crew of NASA’s shuttle Discovery, which landed yesterday in... ...
  2. 6.14.2008 | Robert Roy Britt
    Cutting the Technotether That Ruins Your Life
    he deluge of office and personal email and IM and texting, along with web surfing, putzing with iTunes and so on has workers increasingly distracted... ...

Related Items from the LiveScience Store

  1. Go to Store
  2. Go to Store

More Stores to Explore