When Nilesh Tripuraneni set out to make pancakes one morning, he had
no idea he’d also wind up with the makings of a first-rate science fair
project. But as the high school student sprinkled water on a hot griddle
to test its temperature, the dancing droplets got him thinking: What,
exactly, was going on beneath them?
The sophomore at Clovis West
High School in California turned to the Internet for clues to the
hopping water droplets. He learned that when the surface of a griddle
becomes very hot — much hotter than the boiling point of water — the
lower part of water droplets can vaporize, or turn to gas, before
reaching the griddle. That cushion of vapor allows the rest of the
droplet to dance.
Tripuraneni also learned about researchers at
the University of Oregon in Eugene who had discovered a way to make the
droplets race across a heated, grooved surface. This movement really
fascinated Tripuraneni, who has always loved fluid mechanics. That’s a
branch of physics that deals with liquids and gases. Before long, the
teen was at work describing the racing water droplets mathematically.
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