Liquid Droplets

When taking pictures of falling liquid droplet the main and obvious way to alter the pictures is to alter the composition of the liquid in both the droplet and the liquid it is dropping into.

The main qualities that affect the behavior of the droplet are:

• viscosity-how the thick the liquid is.
• surface tension-water has one of the highest surface tensions of any liquid.

The viscosity of the liquid can be altered by changing the temperature of the liquid, the hotter the liquid the less viscous it will be. Adding other substances such as glycerin increases the viscosity. The higher the viscosity the smoother the splashes will be but the splashes will not be as big.

Surface tension affects the movement off the splash, during and after impact, if a column of water is formed after a splash it will "fall" five times faster than gravity intended it to due to the surface tension pulling it back down. Surface tension in water can be reduced by adding soap a lower surface tension increases the height of the column.