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View Full Version : Energy and area of water balloon' splatter?


Zackowitz
Oct 11, 2013, 02:23 PM
How does the kinetic energy a water balloon endures when falling relate to the splatter it creates when hitting the floor?

Extra points if you can lead me to an article or paper.

Celine91
Oct 23, 2013, 05:29 AM
I would try to apply first the principle of conservation of energy from the point it falls from, until it hits the ground (IMMEDIATELY AFTER).

m: mass of water balloon
V: speed with which it hits the ground
h: height from which balloon falls

m*g*h = 0.5*m*V^2
so, V = square root of (2*g*h)... speed of the water drops that splash (immediately after hitting), and the radius of the splattering must be in proportion. So we can say that the splattering radius is roughly proportional to the square root of h (height of release from ground)

This makes, Radius of splattering (ROUGHLY) = 4.43 * sq. root of (h)

for e.g: if you drop it from 4 m height the splattering will be twice as much as when you drop it from 1 m height (roughly speaking again).