Path: g2news1.google.com!news3.google.com!news.glorb.com!wns13feed!worldnet.att.net!199.45.49.37!cyclone1.gnilink.net!gnilink.net!cyclone.rdc-nyc.rr.com!news-out.nyc.rr.com!twister.nyc.rr.com.POSTED!not-for-mail
From: Kenny Tilton <ktil...@nyc.rr.com>
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.4) Gecko/20030624 Netscape/7.1 (ax)
X-Accept-Language: en-us, en
MIME-Version: 1.0
Newsgroups: alt.sci.physics
Subject: mysterious ripples... surface tension?
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Lines: 26
Message-ID: <Ss8Me.2145$ZG2.915263@twister.nyc.rr.com>
Date: Mon, 15 Aug 2005 22:14:10 GMT
NNTP-Posting-Host: 69.203.74.110
X-Complaints-To: abuse@rr.com
X-Trace: twister.nyc.rr.com 1124144050 69.203.74.110 (Mon, 15 Aug 2005 18:14:10 EDT)
NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 15 Aug 2005 18:14:10 EDT
Organization: Road Runner - NYC


Background: In a park on a hot summer's day in an area tiled with 6-inch 
hexagonal stones, a girl dumps most of a bottle of water on the tiled 
ground. A puddle forms, which because of a very slight grade starts 
extending in several directions.

I am puzzled by occasional bursts of concentric ripples appearing here 
and there, as if a very light rain was just starting, or as if gas was 
occasionally bubbling up from the bottom of a pond. But there was no 
rain, and there was no mucky bottom, just tightly-fit stone tiles.

I squatted down close to the water and watched closely. The ripples 
seemed to be forming spontaneously. I felt no rain or anything else 
falling, nor did I see bubbles.

My guess -- and I am here seeking confirmation or better ideas -- was 
that the surface of the puddle was being stretched by the slowly 
extending arms of easing downhill, and that periodically the surface 
"broke" at random points producing a shock of some sort at such a point 
which got manifested as a ripple. Perhaps water pushed up through the 
rupture starting a wave?

Jes' curious.

kenny