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My name is Andre Vernon. My question is: When you let water fall off of a bridge, it spreads out. Why does it not keep its shape?


Replies:
Why should water keep its shape? Water is a liquid, so it tends to behave quite differently from solid materials - in particular it flows, and heads for regions of lowest gravitational potential energy (ie. downhill). When it goes off a cliff or a bridge, the same thing is happening, but the normal continuous flow tends to fail under the high acceleration, and the water flow breaks up into droplets, which each follow their own path to the bottom, spreading out on the way.

Arthur Smith


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