eli5 Do water drops hanging from a a surface constantly drip at a microscopic level?
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Below a certain length unit the droplets wouldn’t form on their own because of surface tension. Nonetheless they evaporate.
No, surface tension holds the water together until the force of gravity outweighs the force of surface tension. That’s why they form drop shapes in the first place.
Not exactly. They don’t form “drops” because of surface tension, but they will get smaller because of evaporation and that other mechanic that gets their molecules absorbed into the surrounding air, unless they’re being fed by a water source, in which case they’ll get bigger until their weight exceeds the surface tension’s ability to hold them back, and that’s when you get a drip.
If you mean microscopic in the sense of molecules coming off the drop in evaporation, then yes, that’s one way to think about it. That’s how a hanging drop can disappear over time without touching it or seeing anything happen to it.
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