A Study of Splashes Part 6

Diameter, 15 centim. Height of fall, 15 centim.

1 T = 0 2 0010 sec.

3 0018 sec.

4 0023 sec.

5 0032 sec.]

Coming now to Fig. 6, we perceive that the long cylindrical hollow has begun to divide. In this spontaneous division we have another ill.u.s.tration of the law of instability which regulated the sub-division of the jets and columns of earlier series. This law is the same whether the cylinder be of air surrounded by liquid or of liquid surrounded by air. Hitherto we have only seen it operating in jets of liquid in air; now we have a jet of air in a liquid.

The lower part of the long cylinder of air splits off into a bubble just behind the sphere, and follows in its wake to the bottom of the vessel, and is only detached and rises to the surface when the sphere strikes the bottom. Many years ago, through the kindness of the curator of the Brighton Aquarium, I was enabled to watch this bubble of air following in the wake of the sphere to the bottom of the deepest tank.

Figs. 7, 8, and 9 show the two parts gradually separating.

[Ill.u.s.tration: SERIES VI--(_continued_)

Scale reduced to about 7/10.

6 0045 sec.

7 8 0050 sec.

9 0054 sec.]

Fig. 10 shows specially well the ripples on the surface of the descending bubble. These undulations sometimes become so accentuated that the upper part of this descending bubble is detached, and then the curious phenomenon may be seen of this detached part still following the rest downwards through the liquid with an unsteady, lurching motion.

Meanwhile the upper half of the divided air-column is seen in Fig. 9 to resemble a deep basin which now rapidly fills up by the influx of liquid from all sides. It is from the confluence of this inflowing liquid into channels which necessarily narrow as the centre is approached that the great velocity with which the liquid spirts upwards is obtained. In Fig.

11 the jet is just discernible above the surface, and in Fig. 13 it is well-established.

[Ill.u.s.tration: SERIES VI--(_continued_)

10 0062 sec.

11 12 0062 sec.

13 0070 sec.]

On increasing the height of fall of a rough sphere to 60 cm., we obtain a higher crater which closes and forms a bubble, exactly as when we increased the height of fall of a liquid drop. The process as viewed from above the surface is shown in Series VII. The first figure of this series shows very well how completely the liquid is driven away from the surface of the sphere the first moment of contact. The subsequent crater and bubble are of exquisite delicacy. This bubble, though it closes completely as in the last figure, is doomed to almost immediate destruction. For we see, on looking below the surface, that the proceedings there are of the same kind as in the case of the lower fall already described, and result in the formation of an upward-directed jet.

[Ill.u.s.tration: SERIES VII

Rough sphere falling 60 cm. Scale 3/4.

1 T = 0 2 0003 sec.

3 0017 sec.

4 0017 sec.

5 0033 sec.]

Thus the first three figures of Series VIII show the last moments of a bubble which has burst, spontaneously, and so has made way for the jet of Fig. 3. (These are taken from a splash into petroleum with 245 cm.

fall.) But the last two figures, 4 and 5 (taken with a 32 cm. fall), show how a bubble which might otherwise have been permanent, is stabbed by the rising jet and destroyed. With water and 60 cm. fall the jet appears sometimes to rise quite unimpeded, and sometimes to be checked by the still closed bubble.

Before leaving the splash of a rough sphere, I desire to call the reader's attention to another point.

Such figures as 7, 9, and 10 of Series V, p. 77, show that the surface of the liquid beyond the walls of the crater is still flat and undisturbed; yet we now know from the corresponding Figs. 5, 6, and 7 of Series VI, p. 83, that a large volume of liquid has been displaced, much larger than the quant.i.ty required to form the crater wall. The inference is that the level of the surface has been slightly raised even at a great distance from the place of the splash. Figs. 7, 8, and 9 of Series VI themselves confirm the impression of the undisturbed flatness of the surface at even a small distance from the splash.

(2) THE SPLASH OF A SMOOTH SPHERE.

The reader who has been sufficiently interested to make for himself the simple experiment suggested at the beginning of this chapter, will have already realized that the splash of a smooth sphere is totally different from that of a rough one. The photographs of Series IX show that the difference is quite p.r.o.nounced from the first instant of contact. In this series the sphere was of polished stone 32 cm. in diameter and fell 14 cm. The scale of magnification is 3/4. The second figure shows that the liquid, instead of being driven away from the surface as was the case with a rough sphere, now rises up in a thin, closely-fitting sheath which (see Fig. 3) completely envelops the sphere even before its summit has reached the water-level. Figs. 4 and 5 show the comparatively insignificant column that remains to mark the spot where the sphere has entered. Fig. 6 was the result of a lucky accident, which left the sphere rough on the right-hand side, smooth on the left. Nothing could show better than this photograph the essential difference between the two splashes.

[Ill.u.s.tration: SERIES VIII

Rough sphere. Splashes viewed below the surface.

The bursting of the bubble.

1 0055 sec.

From a splash into Petroleum

245 cm. fall.

2 0060 sec.

3 0064 sec.

From a splash into Petroleum

32 cm. fall.

4 0070 sec.

5 0082 sec.]

The reader's attention is directed to the remarkably deep furrows which characterize the whole sheath in Fig. 3 and the left-hand (smooth splash) part in Fig. 5. About these furrows we shall have something to say later.

A better idea of the extreme thinness of the enveloping sheath is obtained when the illumination is from behind as in Series X, in which the sphere was of highly polished serpentine stone 257 cm. (or just over 1 inch) in diameter, the fall being 14 cm. (or not quite 6 inches).

[Ill.u.s.tration: SERIES IX

The "sheath" splash of a smooth sphere.

1 T = 0 2 0002 sec.

3 0013 sec.

4 0024 sec.

5 0039 sec.

6]

Examination of either Series IX or Series X shows that with the smooth sphere as with the rough the amount of water lifted above the surface in the immediate neighbourhood of the splash is much less than the whole volume displaced, so that we are again driven to the conclusion that the surface at even a considerable distance must be bodily lifted without its flatness being sensibly disturbed. This conclusion was confirmed by a direct experiment. The not very wide vessel of Fig. A was taken and filled brimful with milk, and the lower edge of a card millimetre scale was placed just in contact with the liquid surface at one side. The reader should notice that the liquid is not quite up to the level of the spout on the right-hand side of this figure. Then the sphere was dropped in and the photograph of Fig. B was taken when the sphere was about two-thirds immersed. The rise at the edge of the scale is about 3 millimetres, and there is an apparently equal rise at the spout, where, however, the surface appears quite flat.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. A]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. B]

It seems probable, then, that whenever a stone is thrown into a lake the impulse accompanying its entry travels with the velocity of a compressional wave (i.e. with the velocity of sound) through the liquid, and is therefore almost instantly felt and produces a minute rise of level even in remote parts of the lake long before the arrival of any ripple or surface disturbance.

[Ill.u.s.tration: SERIES X