Rainy day shots....

[BobR]

Got up close and personal with some water drops today. First long soaking rain since spring. Actually it feels like spring!-the temp outside is 63 and raining. Unbelievably cooler than the 97 degrees of 2 days ago!

[Ima Hack]

Great shots Bob, the third one is fantastic. The texture of the leaves really helps this one.

[chicagojohn]

These are very interesting, BobR, with the drops acting as little lenses for the camera lens.

Next time it rains here in Chicagoland, I'm going to have to try this since I have a waterproof camera AND lens!!

However, I'm afraid the way things are going, it may be awhile. But I'll definitely put it on the agenda!

[BobR]

Thanks Paul! The third was the first subject of the day. The one that caught my eye to the beading effect some plants seem to have. Bob

[BobR]

Thanks chicagojohn! It hasn't rained like this since spring. Its bizarre that its only 63 degrees now! Wouldnt have dreamed it would get chilly and rainy like this in July- you never know. Bob

[Baron von Smoogle]

I love the way that surface tension makes the drops nearly spherical in #2,3,and4.

[chicagojohn]

I love the way that surface tension makes the drops nearly spherical in #2,3,and4.

Me too, Baron. And I'd like to say a little more about that. My nephew spent the day with me at work yesterday, and he's really into understanding things; he's into quantum mechanics; so we had a conversation about water and surface tension.

If water were a linear molecule, H2O, it would be a gas at these temperatures and we would not exist, at least not as we do now. It has a molecular weight in the empirical formula of about 18, whereas methane is around whereas nitrogen is 28 and oxygen is 32, and as we know, these are gases.

But the two covalent bonds for oxygen are at an angle of just over 104°, and this gives the hydrogen side a positive charge and the oxygen side a negative charge; a dipole.

So water molecules tend to line up in "polymers" averaging around 7 or eight molecules, with hydrogen sides sticking to oxygen sides due to "hydrogen bonding". That is why water boils at 212°F rather than -40°, and also why it likes to stick to itself and become elastic as in this photos, especially when it is relatively pure, as in water condensed in rain drops and without the addition of surfactants which create micellles that break up waters linear linkages.

These images reminded me of that discussion.