What is the shape of a drop of water?
If you Google that question, you'll find a Wikipedia answer
with much more information than most people will ever need.
Farther down the search page, the same question is posed
by a nine-year-old to Bob Trach of Argonne National Laboratories
in a series called, "Ask a Scientist." His answer is more my speed.
Contrary to popular misconception
a free-falling raindrop is not shaped like a teardrop--
round on the bottom and pointy on the top.
If the falling drip is small enough, it is a perfect sphere.
A sphere is the geometrical shape that has
the smallest surface for its volume.
The drop takes this shape because water molecules
tend to stick to each other. So, when not confined by a container,
and with nothing around it to distort its shape,
a very tiny water drop is perfectly round like a ball
because the water molecules are pulling inward toward each other.
If the drop is larger like a raindrop in free-fall,
it has a domed top and a semi-flattened bottom
because as it falls it must push the air out of it's way.
Photos taken recently through my window
during a rare sunny day with temperatures above freezing.
