Comparison of the lateral retention forces on sessile and pendant water drops on a solid surface

TL;DR

This paper presents an experiment comparing lateral retention forces on water drops in different orientations, revealing that pendant drops can experience forces comparable to or greater than sessile drops, and demonstrates the Coriolis effect.

Contribution

It introduces a simple experimental setup to compare lateral retention forces on sessile and pendant drops and illustrates the Coriolis effect in two dimensions.

Findings

Pendant drops can experience larger lateral retention forces than sessile drops.

The experiment demonstrates the Coriolis effect in a straightforward manner.

Lateral retention forces are comparable for drops in different orientations.

Abstract

We present a simple experiment that demonstrates how a water drop hanging from a Plexiglas surface (pendant drop) experiences a lateral retention force that is comparable to, and in some cases larger than, the lateral retention force on a drop resting on top of the surface (sessile drop). The experiment also affords a simple demonstration of the Coriolis effect in two dimensions.