Raindrops break the speed limit
Did you know that raindrops have speed limits of their own? Raindrops that are larger than 0.5 millimeters when going across fall with a terminal velocity of several meters per second, while smaller drops fall slower with a terminal velocity of less than one meter per second. Terminal Velocity is when friction cancels the downward pull of gravity. This means that the raindrops speed up and keep falling at a steady pace. Michael Larsen, an atmospheric physicist, wanted to know if drops as fast as these existed, so he and his team used a rain monitor that took pictures of individual falling raindrops. These images helped them measure the speed, size, and direction of the falling rain. On October 6, 2014 his team reported online that 3 …show more content…
After reading this article I thought about how a meteorologist could use the tools mentioned in this article to predict the weather and how bad a rainstorm will be. When my parents are watching the news, I might be more attentive to the weather portion to see if they mention terminal velocity or the tools used to measure it. Also, I thought back to moments when I was outside and it started to rain, I noticed that some drops were a lot bigger and fell faster than one another. When I was reading the article I found it interesting that we have invented cameras that can take pictures of individual drops of rain, and monitors that can measure their terminal velocities. I found this interesting because there are so many raindrops that fall during a rainstorm, and being able to take pictures of just one is amazing! After reading the article, I realized that it never mentioned who invented terminal velocity, I could find this information in several different places including the library, a trusted scientific website, or a government website. I really enjoyed reading about this topic and learned many new things that I can relate to real
Did you know that raindrops have speed limits of their own? Raindrops that are larger than 0.5 millimeters when going across fall with a terminal velocity of several meters per second, while smaller drops fall slower with a terminal velocity of less than one meter per second. Terminal Velocity is when friction cancels the downward pull of gravity. This means that the raindrops speed up and keep falling at a steady pace. Michael Larsen, an atmospheric physicist, wanted to know if drops as fast as these existed, so he and his team used a rain monitor that took pictures of individual falling raindrops. These images helped them measure the speed, size, and direction of the falling rain. On October 6, 2014 his team reported online that 3 …show more content…
After reading this article I thought about how a meteorologist could use the tools mentioned in this article to predict the weather and how bad a rainstorm will be. When my parents are watching the news, I might be more attentive to the weather portion to see if they mention terminal velocity or the tools used to measure it. Also, I thought back to moments when I was outside and it started to rain, I noticed that some drops were a lot bigger and fell faster than one another. When I was reading the article I found it interesting that we have invented cameras that can take pictures of individual drops of rain, and monitors that can measure their terminal velocities. I found this interesting because there are so many raindrops that fall during a rainstorm, and being able to take pictures of just one is amazing! After reading the article, I realized that it never mentioned who invented terminal velocity, I could find this information in several different places including the library, a trusted scientific website, or a government website. I really enjoyed reading about this topic and learned many new things that I can relate to real