



Produced by Chris Curnow, Greg Bergquist and the Online
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  _THE ROMANCE OF SCIENCE_

  THE SPLASH OF A DROP


  BY
  PROF. A.M. WORTHINGTON, M.A., F.R.S.


  _Being the reprint of a Discourse delivered at the Royal Institution
  of Great Britain, May 18, 1894._

  PUBLISHED UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE GENERAL
  LITERATURE COMMITTEE.


  LONDON:
  SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE,
  NORTHUMBERLAND AVENUE, CHARING CROSS, W.C.;
  43, QUEEN VICTORIA STREET, E.C.
  BRIGHTON: 129, NORTH STREET.
  NEW YORK: E. & J.B. YOUNG & CO.
  1895.




THE SPLASH OF A DROP




INSTANTANEOUS PHOTOGRAPHS OF THE SPLASH OF A WATER-DROP FALLING ABOUT 16
INCHES INTO MILK.

[Illustration: Time after contact =.0262 sec.]

[Illustration: Time after contact =.0391 sec.]

[Illustration: Time after contact =.101 sec.]




THE SPLASH OF A DROP


The splash of a drop is a transaction which is accomplished in the
twinkling of an eye, and it may seem to some that a man who proposes to
discourse on the matter for an hour must have lost all sense of
proportion. If that opinion exists, I hope this evening to be able to
remove it, and to convince you that we have to deal with an exquisitely
regulated phenomenon, and one which very happily illustrates some of the
fundamental properties of