Raindrops keep falling on ... wait, wasn't that a song?
Which falls faster ... large raindrops ... or small ones? ... and why?
posted by Zaux at
4:01 PM
Friday, February 5, 2010
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9 Comments:
Big raindrops fall faster than small ones.
I think neither- according to the laws of gravity,
everything falls at the same rate
Air resistance slows the raindrop. The drag is proportional to the radius of the raindrop (at low speeds). This is known as Stoke's Law. The gravitaional force is proportional to the mass and hence to the radius cubed. Increasing the radius increases the ratio of the gravitational force to the drag force, and so the larger raindrop falls faster.
0_o
Here's some simple calculations of terminal velocity.
Stoke's law, for a sphere of radius r, at low speed, is:
Fd = 6πμrv, where Fd is the drag force, μ is the viscosity of the
surrounding fluid and v is the speed. In a nutshell, drag is
proportional to both the radius and the speed for a given fluid.
I'm ignoring buoyancy for simplicity.
The force pulling the raindrop down is gravity and is Fg = mg
Fg = (4/3)πr³ρg, where ρ is the density of the raindrop, which
I've assumed to be spherical. When the raindrop falls fast enough,
Fd = Fg and then the raindrop will stop accelerating and so
achieve a terminal velocity.
Solving Fg = Fd => v = (2/9) gρr²/μ. Letting _l and _s denote
large and small: v_l/v_s = (r_l/r_s)², or terminal velocity is
proportional to radius squared => a large raindrop falls more
rapidly than a small one.
Thats supposed to be simple ? Not really to me since i'm only in the 4th grade :) yeah I got bored and searched and stuff...
Umm, i will wait till the next rainy season.
Depends on the weather and climate.
If you are in the northern hemisphere the big ones fall faster. Vise versa for the small ones in the southern hemisphere.
Gravity pulls both rain the jingo root of the rain droplets are effected by several factors including heat, wind, gravity, dinamics, and other less important factors not worth mentioning, because they have such little effect.
The ratio of the jingo root of the big rain drop to the jingo root of the small rain drop is always 14 creating a paradox, because 14 is the jingo non-touchable number. Therefore trumping all factors except the factor of the earths rotational axis.
As stated above the only factor now included is the rotation aka the tilt making my statement true in all circumstances.
Everything can not change, for if everything changes that is something that wont change as for controdicting itself. Forgive my spelling if it is incorrect
From the Godson
The Godson. Where'd you the idea that the hemisphere matters?
As for the rest. My terminal velocity post boils down to, at low speeds the terminal velocity is proportional to the cross-sectional area of the raindrop. i.e. the bigger they are, the harder they fall.
Imagine a raindrop the size of a house, and one from an atomiser (aerosol spray). Which do you think would fall the fastest?
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