January 7, 2017 at 1:09 pm

Picture of the Day: Surface Tension

by twistedsifter

gecko sufrace tension Picture of the Day: Surface Tension

Photograph by DaveJahVoo on reddit

 

Here we see a Gecko just hanging out on the surface of redditor DaveJahVoo’s fish tank. This is a great example of surface tension, which Wikipedia describes as:

 

The elastic tendency of a fluid surface which makes it acquire the least surface area possible. Surface tension allows insects (e.g. water striders), usually denser than water, to float and stride on a water surface.
 
At liquid-air interfaces, surface tension results from the greater attraction of liquid molecules to each other (due to cohesion) than to the molecules in the air (due to adhesion). The net effect is an inward force at its surface that causes the liquid to behave as if its surface were covered with a stretched elastic membrane. Thus, the surface becomes under tension from the imbalanced forces. [source]

 

 

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