Comment on It’s the little things

lemmy_outta_here@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

• thebestaquaman@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  It relies on differences in surface tension. If a liquid has a lower surface tension (energy) towards one surface than another, you get the typical capillary effect. In the case of water, the water-air energy is lower than the water-<whatever your capillary is made of> energy, so you get a capillary effect.

  If water had exactly zero surface tension against every interface,

  • it would not exhibit any capillary action
  • life on earth would cease to exist quite quickly
  • your socks would remain dry

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  • samus12345@sh.itjust.works ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    life on earth would cease to exist quite quickly

    Image

    your socks would remain dry

    Image

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  • sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    life on earth would cease to exist quite quickly

    This was the first thought that came to my mind on seeing this post.

    For starters, basicaly most (all?) plants are fucked, they can no longer internally hydrate, also water in soil behaves totally differently, so …yeah.

    Then you’ve got beings with active circulatory systems, who… may to some extent be able to live, but lots of pulmonary / circulatory problems are gonna happen.

    I guess maybe totally waterborne life could survive, maybe… but 0 surface tension of water probably changes how salinity works…

    Yeah, this would be very bad, lol.

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    • thebestaquaman@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

      If we want to go to extremes, zero surface tension means no nucleation barrier for critical bubbles. In practice, this implies that liquid water is unstable, and will spontaneously vaporise at all conditions.

      So yeah, all life ends pretty quickly.

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      • sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

        Wow, that’s much worse lol!

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