Abstract
THE following experiment, based on the temperature-density relations between aniline and water, serves to illustrate to an audience the various shapes through which a drop passes in the course of its formation. A glass beaker, about 9 inches in height and 41/2 inches diameter, is filled to about 7 inches with distilled water, and about 80 c.c. of aniline are added. The beaker is then placed on a burner, and the temperature raised until the aniline floats to the surface of the water. On spreading out at the surface the aniline is cooled, thereby becoming denser than the water beneath. A large drop, 1 inch or more in diameter, then detaches itself from the mass at the surface, the formation being so slow that the altering shapes of the drop, the drawing out of the neck of liquid, and the thinning of the neck in two places may easily be observed. The large, detached drop falls to the bottom of the beaker, and is there re-heated, thereby again becoming lighter than the water, and rising to the surface, when a second drop is formed. By maintaining the temperature about 80° the formation of drops continues indefinitely in the manner described. The slightly pink colour assumed by the aniline enables the experiment to be seen clearly from a considerable distance, and the many beautiful shapes assumed by the drops lend an added interest to this simple method of demonstrating their formation.
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DARLING, C. The Formation of Large Drops of Liquid. Nature 83, 37 (1910). https://doi.org/10.1038/083037a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/083037a0
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