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Drop (liquid)




A drop is a small volume of Liquid , bounded completely or almost completely by free surfaces. The simplest way to form a drop is to allow liquid to flow slowly from the lower end of a vertical tube of small diameter. When the pendant drop exceeds a certain size it is no longer stable and detaches itself. Drops may also be formed by the Condensation of a Supercooled Vapor or by Atomization of a larger mass of liquid. The weight of the largest drop that can hang from the end of a tube of radius ''a'' is nearly

mg = 3 \pi a \lambda \cos \alpha

where λ is the Surface Tension of the liquid and α is the angle of contact with the tube. This relationship is the basis of a convenient method of measuring surface tension.

Due to the different Refractive Index of Water and Air , Refraction and Reflection occur on the surfaces of Rain drops, leading to Rainbow formation.