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Name: Unknown
Status: N/A
Age: N/A
Location: N/A
Country: N/A
Date: Around 1993
Question:
What is the average height that raindrops form? Do they fall at terminal velocity? If they do not fall at a terminal velocity, why not? The raindrop forms a shape that has the least resistance as it falls, does not it? Or, does it fall fast but have little momentum?


Replies:
Raindrops do fall at terminal velocity or even faster if they are pushed by a downdraft. But terminal velocity for even a large drop is not very high because the drop flattens out into sort of a pancake shape, so it actually has more air resistance than a sphere.

John Hawley


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