Will Raindrops Stick to a Spider Web's Threads?
Tuesday, April 12, 2016 - 12:00
in Earth & Climate
If you go out after a rain, you may notice spider webs glistening with water droplets. The soggy webs resemble human-made meshes for fog collection: They both have thin fibers that collect water from droplets in the air. Now researchers have developed a model to predict whether a falling droplet will stick to a thin fiber, and how much water residue will remain on the fiber, discussing their findings in this week's Physics of Fluids.