'Super-terminal' raindrops break speed limit

[The Straight Story]

'Super-terminal' raindrops break speed limit

* 17:45 15 May 2009 by Phil McKenna

Many raindrops travel at "super-terminal" velocities, faster than was thought possible. As a result, meteorologists may be miscalculating how much it rains.

Previously, it was assumed that all raindrops fall at terminal velocity, a constant maximum speed that is determined by the interplay of gravity and drag. The velocity for individual drops is considered to be largely controlled by their size: larger drops fall faster than smaller drops, due to their greater mass.

Fernando García-García of the National Autonomous University of Mexico and colleagues measured the shadows of natural raindrops passing through a ray of infrared light. They found that up to half exceed their terminal velocity. Some travel as much as 10 times faster, for their size.
Broken drops

"Others had detected this before, but everybody disregarded it, blaming it on an error," says Garcia-Garcia.

The team suspects that the super-terminal drops may be fragments of larger drops broken apart as they fall. "If a large drop breaks into several fragments, each drop will have the speed of the large drop, at least temporarily, until the smaller drops slow to their new terminal velocity," García-García says.

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17147-superterminal-raindrops-break-speed-limit.html

[warrior1]

1. raindrops keep falling at terminal velocity on my head

..so one had to say it..

[Iggo]

2. SCIENCE!

:applause:

[left coaster]

3. Good heavens, Miss Sakamoto!

You're beautiful!!

[soothsayer]

5. all those tubes and wires!

[piratefish08]

4. Fundie Explanation - "gawd creates rainbows even faster over a christian nation"