VE>The radiative heat flow to the droplets goes like their area on the glass, but the heat required to raise their temperature by one degree goes like their volume. The small drops therefore heat up faster than the large drops and their surface tension diminishes faster, causing them to become unstable (against gravity) first. Veit Sorry, no, the larger ones still fall first, as before. I was merely asking why they only fell when warm, and you said the magic words that *surface tension* declines with temperature. So the smaller ones need to get hotter. Perfect. Thanks! --rwg On Apr 25, 2011, at 7:18 PM, Bill Gosper wrote:
Sprinkle some water on the horizontal inside surface of the opened glass door of a room-temperature toaster oven. Close the door, and wait half a minute for the larger drops to run down. Press TOAST. What happens to the remaining drops?
I would have expected them to evaporate. Instead, they run down in decreasing order of size, at least for me, well before reaching the boiling point. Why?? --rwg
How do I stop idiot GMail from linebreaking? IBM punch cards were 80 column.