I have stated that the addition of the milk to the water made but little difference in the character of the resulting splash. It does, however, make certain differences in detail, as will be gathered from an examination of the next Series Ia, which shows the effect of letting the water-drop fall from the same height into water instead of into milk. Such a splash is difficult to photograph unless the illumination is from behind. As shown in this way, the early figures of the crater might be unintelligible to the reader had he not already studied the same crater lighted up from the side. Sometimes, though the front of the crater is hardly visible directly, yet every lobe on it can be clearly traced in the inverted image seen by reflection.
The most noticeable difference between the two splashes is perhaps the very much greater number of ripples seen with the splash in pure water. This is partly because, with the illumination behind, such ripples are more easily visible, but arises chiefly from the fact that ripples are not so readily propagated over the surface of milk on account both of its smaller surface-tension and its greater viscosity. The first appearance of outward-spreading ripples is in No. 6, just round the subsiding crater.
SERIES Ia
Water into water (40 cm. fall). Scale 9/10.
SERIES Ia—(continued)
Since the origination of these ripples is an interesting phenomenon from a physical point of view, as throwing light on the dispersion of waves travelling with different velocities, special precautions were taken to secure the most favourable conditions, and in order to clean the surface after the arrival of each drop, which inevitably brings down a little adherent lamp-black, a continuous slow stream of fresh water was maintained which swept the contaminated surface-liquid away over the edge of the vessel.
The effect of this precaution is seen by a comparison of the photographs No. 11 and No. 11a. In the first the surface was kept quite clean in the way described; in the second it had only been cleaned by skimming it with a fine wire-gauze dish.
The beginning of the descent of the first central column seems to be marked by the appearance of a slight depression round its base, which has just not begun in No. 11a, and has just begun in No. 11, and goes on increasing in Figs. 12 and 13.
SERIES Ia—(continued)
Running water. Scale reduced to 6/10.
11 0·139 sec. | | 11a 0·139 sec. | |
SERIES Ia—(continued)
Running water. Scale 6/10.
12 0·163 sec. | | 13 0·185 sec. | |
The same feature marks the beginning of the descent of the secondary central column, which is still rising in Fig. 17, is just poised in Fig. 18, and thence onwards shows a gradually increasing central depression. These last four figures carry us to a rather later stage than was reached in Series I.
It should be noticed that in this Series the water-drop used was of smaller diameter than that of Series I, weighing ·13 grams as against ·2 grams. By employing the smaller drop, we diminish irregularities due to oscillations of form set up on release, for the smaller drop is more spherical when lying on the dropping cup than the larger; a few photographs taken for comparison with the full-sized drop showed, however, extremely little difference in the splashes at this height of fall.
SERIES Ia—(continued)
Still water. Scale 9/10.
SERIES Ia—(continued)
Still water. Scale 9/10.