It’s the little things
from loomy@lemy.lol to science_memes@mander.xyz on 16 Jul 05:43
https://lemy.lol/post/48632878

cross-posted from: sh.itjust.works/post/42205785

#science_memes

threaded - newest

schnokobaer@feddit.org on 16 Jul 06:01 next collapse

But that 2 micron puddle would also evaporate in 2 microseconds!

AwesomeLowlander@sh.itjust.works on 16 Jul 06:03 next collapse

Wouldn’t it evaporate in like 5 seconds, then? Also, drainage would be the easiest thing ever. Don’t even need a slanted floor.

ryedaft@sh.itjust.works on 16 Jul 07:04 collapse

That’d be awful. You want the stuff in water out of your house, not precipitated all over the floor.

AwesomeLowlander@sh.itjust.works on 16 Jul 07:08 collapse

What stuff in water? Are you referring to drainage?

PunnyName@lemmy.world on 16 Jul 07:25 collapse

Minerals, dirt, pathogens, etc.

If you wash your ear raw chicken (you shouldn’t), that splatter would be much more evenly spread over every surface it lands on.

AwesomeLowlander@sh.itjust.works on 16 Jul 07:37 collapse

Well yeah, I’m not advocating we convert to surface-tensionless water, here. I’m just pointing out the flaw in this meme’s logic.

Now on to serious questions, wtf is an ear chicken?

CTDummy@aussie.zone on 16 Jul 08:00 collapse

Auto correct from raw? Otherwise, god help us.

PunnyName@lemmy.world on 16 Jul 08:06 collapse

Yes, I will correct.

Nakoichi@hexbear.net on 16 Jul 06:03 next collapse

Technically even without surface tension, the microscopically small deviations in elevation in your floor, combined with evaporation and absorption would actually mean you would have a dry floor almost immediately.

Surface tension is just one aspect of the molecular bonds that cause water to accumulate, and if there were no surface tension that would mean those bonds would have to be nonexistent and thus water would not be able to condense into a liquid in the first place.

<img alt="nerd" src="https://hexbear.net/api/v3/image_proxy?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchapo.chat%2Fpictrs%2Fimage%2Fc3c351bb-cee7-484c-aecf-5b87fbc2f496.gif">

fullsquare@awful.systems on 16 Jul 06:47 next collapse

you can have liquids with low surface tension that don’t evaporate immediately (water + soap)

Flyberius@hexbear.net on 16 Jul 08:06 collapse

Ok, nerd…

judgyweevil@feddit.it on 16 Jul 06:33 next collapse

That’s how water works in videogames

loomy@lemy.lol on 16 Jul 07:04 next collapse

🤔

vonxylofon@lemmy.world on 16 Jul 07:20 collapse

🤔

<img alt="" src="https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/ad101518-07bd-4dc9-8da2-1f477066c3d2.png">

judgyweevil@feddit.it on 16 Jul 09:27 collapse

Water just doesn’t work in minecraft

Archangel1313@lemmy.ca on 16 Jul 07:33 next collapse

Your floor would have to be supernaturally flat and level for that to happen.

sxan@midwest.social on 16 Jul 10:17 collapse

<img alt="" src="https://midwest.social/api/v3/image_proxy?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.playbuzz.com%2Fcdn%2F040fd49c-5dc2-4e3d-bc91-59de179882bd%2F9080005c-2183-48da-a974-bb193106cfa6.jpg">

Hadriscus@jlai.lu on 16 Jul 12:13 next collapse

the world is crooked ! reality is a lie !

meyotch@slrpnk.net on 16 Jul 14:27 collapse

Lambs to the cosmic slaughter!

Hadriscus@jlai.lu on 16 Jul 14:34 collapse

ah yes ! that’s the one

umbrella@lemmy.ml on 16 Jul 18:44 collapse

is this show still any good? after roilland was kicked out for being a creep i mean.

sxan@midwest.social on 16 Jul 21:38 next collapse

I liked it through the last season I watched, which was there season after the big gap. 5, I think? I don’t watch a lot of TV, and I don’t fanboi very well; was that after he left?

samus12345@sh.itjust.works on 16 Jul 21:48 collapse

As someone who didn’t like most of seasons 5 and 6, yes, it’s gotten better. There are some really good episodes in 7 and 8. There are still duds, but the quality ratio is better than it was.

Gladaed@feddit.org on 16 Jul 08:08 next collapse

We would probably just not exist as liquids that want to hold together are pretty essential. Even if you just imagine blood not leaving your body through the tiniest nick.

Psionicsickness@reddthat.com on 16 Jul 09:21 collapse

I mean maybe? Surface tension play a role in blood staying on the wound, but it’s the blood itself that clots. I think the bigger issue would be your eyes, but maybe evolution creates a light sensor that wasn’t developed underwater…

I’m at a loss. In my heart of hearts I know we all die if water doesn’t tend to hold together, but I can’t think of WHY. Call xkcd.

Collatz_problem@hexbear.net on 16 Jul 08:20 next collapse

Spilling liquid helium to achieve this.

DancingBear@midwest.social on 16 Jul 18:32 collapse

The boiling point of liquid helium is -268.93°C (4.2 Kelvin)

58008@lemmy.world on 16 Jul 10:16 next collapse

What if each H~2~O molecule was coated in a hydrophobic substance?

sxan@midwest.social on 16 Jul 10:20 next collapse

Would capillary action still work, or does it depend on surface tension? I’m thinking about superfluids. Would the water stop at covering the floor?

Venus_Ziegenfalle@feddit.org on 16 Jul 10:23 collapse

You can try it yourself by adding a drop of dish soap to some water. Capillary action would still work and the water would evaporate long before covering the entire floor.

I_am_10_squirrels@beehaw.org on 16 Jul 14:41 collapse

Capillary rise depends on surface tension, gamma. If surface tension was 0, there would be no capillary rise. Soap decreases surface tension, but it’s not 0.

<img alt="" src="https://beehaw.org/pictrs/image/749c8e18-99b2-442f-bda3-0a252813498a.png">

Venus_Ziegenfalle@feddit.org on 16 Jul 15:52 collapse

Oh nevermind then. I just looked it up and came across the so-called Rollin film. I don’t know if that only appears in helium or if superfluid water would be subject to that effect as well. I wonder how that would impact its behaviour.

Gwaer@lemmy.world on 16 Jul 11:28 next collapse

Wouldn’t it just be a superfluid at that point? Those things are ungovernable. We’d have way more problems that just spilled puddles. They crawl out of the beakers on their own. It’d be an absolute nightmare.

My bad superfluids are 0 viscosity not surface tension carry on we’re safe.

racketlauncher831@lemmy.ml on 16 Jul 12:29 next collapse

I heard about superfluid crawling out of a container. But I wonder in this case, what works the fluid against the gravity upward the wall of the container?

TeddE@lemmy.world on 16 Jul 13:02 next collapse

Capillary action; which is a combination of adhesion, cohesion, and surface tension and for superfluids the additional ack of friction.

Unfortunately, if cohesion is removed from water, this might drastically change if the water can crawl up the container (the details would be based on the specific physics of this imaginary universe).

Zerush@lemmy.ml on 16 Jul 18:36 collapse

It even pass through cristal bottles, you can’t store it there. But it only exist under 2,5º K

Zerush@lemmy.ml on 16 Jul 14:33 collapse

It cleans not only your floor, but also the ceilings and floors of the neighbors which are living below.

loomy@lemy.lol on 16 Jul 16:32 collapse

cool

And009@lemmynsfw.com on 16 Jul 11:32 next collapse

Assuming my home is perfectly level, which it is not

loomy@lemy.lol on 16 Jul 16:31 collapse

speak for yourself

Admetus@sopuli.xyz on 16 Jul 11:57 next collapse

Sounds like a lot less cleaning in the house as it would just evaporate in less than a minute?

REDACTED@infosec.pub on 16 Jul 16:10 collapse

High humidity tends to ruin a lot of houses/construction materials over time, but you’ll likely first notice random spores

Azzu@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 16 Jul 16:29 collapse

I mean you can just ventilate whenever you spill something.

The larger problem would be the entire water-based ecosystem.

Admetus@sopuli.xyz on 17 Jul 04:20 collapse

We need xkcd to explain what would happen on a large scale if water was like this.

NigelFrobisher@aussie.zone on 16 Jul 12:43 next collapse

Probably our bodies would instantly collapse into ooze like that guy in the first X-Men.

PillowD@lemmy.world on 16 Jul 12:57 next collapse

“Everything is coated with a fine layer of shit.” yourwildlife.org/…/the-tip-of-the-gutberg-the-wor…

Wilzax@lemmy.world on 16 Jul 14:42 next collapse

You could also clean it by putting a cloth in the lowest point it would run to so this sounds like a win to me

yuri@pawb.social on 16 Jul 17:35 collapse

i think without surface tension it would also just fall out of the cloth as soon as you lift it, because nothing would wick against gravity. in fact of your floor is pourous at all, i reckon the water would just immediately all flow further down and you’d be left with a dry floor.

bleistift2@sopuli.xyz on 16 Jul 17:38 next collapse

Oil doesn’t have surface tension and it stays in the cloth. At a certain point it’s not surface tension that keeps liquids together but friction.

Says my uneducated ass.

yuri@pawb.social on 16 Jul 17:47 collapse

oils have low surface tension, i believe a true no-surface tension liquid is as impossible as a true frictionless surface.

i didn’t consider friction though! i think the rag would still dry out completely pretty quick, but you might have a few seconds while the water falls out depending on how tight the mesh is?

i dunno, this is a real whacky thing to think about!

marcos@lemmy.world on 16 Jul 17:44 collapse

Without surface tension it would stick to whatever thing attracts it more. And a normal piece of cloth attracts water way more than a normal non-carpet floor.

But it also wouldn’t flow freely as the GP expects either. Some oils have almost no surface tension, and they are famously a nightmare to clean up.

As a positive, the water would evaporate faster.

yuri@pawb.social on 16 Jul 17:50 collapse

the cloth attracts it because of the capillary action pulling water into the gaps therein, and capillary action relies on surface tension! i think without outside forces like suction, the liquid in this scenario would never flow against gravity.

i think hahah

marcos@lemmy.world on 16 Jul 19:34 collapse

Surface tension doesn’t tell you anything about the cloth-water interface.

yuri@pawb.social on 16 Jul 20:12 next collapse

i mean it’s literally why liquids wick into cloth

yuri@pawb.social on 18 Jul 18:46 collapse

late reply but i ONLY JUST CONSIDERED, the cloth would most likely have some static charge which WOULD result in a literal “attraction force” towards the water!

physics is so stupid, i love it so much

monk@lemmy.unboiled.info on 16 Jul 20:07 next collapse

good news: it wouldn’t be

mathemachristian@hexbear.net on 17 Jul 06:56 collapse

In this case human dwellings would be built to accomodate for this, since it’s basically impossible to wipe up any water puddle. Builders would have to come up with some technology (drains in every room, floor heating as the norm to evaporate the 2µm water film etc.) or risk water damage. So you’d never have to wipe up a puddle since your apartment would have been built in a way that allows for the cleaning of water in other ways.