The physics behind raindrops.If I were to ask you to picture in your head the shape of a raindrop you’d probably think about the standard, idealized almost pear shaped tear drop. This however is no more accurate a depiction of rain as those drawings of hearts or atoms. In reality water flattens out due to the force of the air rushing past and this effect only becomes more noticeable as the size increases. In fact smaller droplets of rain are almost totally spherical but as the size increases they get flatter and wider. Raindrops larger than about 4.5 mm however are torn apart by this force and bulge out the back, being thicker at the bottom edge. This causes them to disperse into smaller raindrops once again until they either hit the ground or join back up with other droplets and the process is repeated.
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The physics behind raindrops.

If I were to ask you to picture in your head the shape of a raindrop you’d probably think about the standard, idealized almost pear shaped tear drop. This however is no more accurate a depiction of rain as those drawings of hearts or atoms. In reality water flattens out due to the force of the air rushing past and this effect only becomes more noticeable as the size increases. In fact smaller droplets of rain are almost totally spherical but as the size increases they get flatter and wider. Raindrops larger than about 4.5 mm however are torn apart by this force and bulge out the back, being thicker at the bottom edge. This causes them to disperse into smaller raindrops once again until they either hit the ground or join back up with other droplets and the process is repeated.

(via tumbleword)

Source: 14-billion-years-later

entomolog: This poor little ants luck had run out today! A tiny rain shower, which lasted no more than 2 minutes and this little one bit the dust. Wrong place, wrong time I guess, a rain drop much have landed right on him. I think this is a Common Coastal Brown Ant. I didn’t even notice it was an ant in there till I took the shot, he was so small, looked like dirt. The drop is about 3mm in diameter sitting on a monster aloe-vera like plant. Noosaville, Queensland, Australia. (photo/text by Adam Gormley)
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entomolog:

This poor little ants luck had run out today! A tiny rain shower, which lasted no more than 2 minutes and this little one bit the dust. Wrong place, wrong time I guess, a rain drop much have landed right on him. I think this is a Common Coastal Brown Ant.

I didn’t even notice it was an ant in there till I took the shot, he was so small, looked like dirt. The drop is about 3mm in diameter sitting on a monster aloe-vera like plant.

Noosaville, Queensland, Australia.

(photo/text by Adam Gormley)

Source: Flickr / adamgormley

Winners of the National Geographic Photo Contest 2011 “Splashing”, Grand Prize Winner and winner of the Nature category. This photo was taken when I was taking photos of other insects, as I normally did during macro photo hunting. I wasn’t actually aware of this dragonfly since I was occupied with other objects. When I was about to take a picture of it, it suddenly rained, but the lighting was just superb. I decided to take the shot regardless of the rain. The result caused me to be overjoyed, and I hope it pleases viewers. Location: Batam, Riau Islands, Indonesia. (© Shikhei Goh) See more fantastic photos at The Atlantic
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Winners of the National Geographic Photo Contest 2011

“Splashing”, Grand Prize Winner and winner of the Nature category. This photo was taken when I was taking photos of other insects, as I normally did during macro photo hunting. I wasn’t actually aware of this dragonfly since I was occupied with other objects. When I was about to take a picture of it, it suddenly rained, but the lighting was just superb. I decided to take the shot regardless of the rain. The result caused me to be overjoyed, and I hope it pleases viewers. Location: Batam, Riau Islands, Indonesia. (© Shikhei Goh)

See more fantastic photos at The Atlantic

(via fuckyeahinsectsandspiders)

Source: theatlantic