The Leidenfrost Effect is what happens when water is introduced to an incredibly hot surface and part of it vaporizes upon contact, creating a barrier that briefly protects the rest of the liquid and causes it to oscillate as the vapor travels upward. That’s what’s happening to the droplet in this video here—well, or it’s listening to “Uptown Funk” and can’t keep from dancing. One or the other.
The oscillations can also create what scientists call a “Leidenfrost star” (possibly because they’ve never seen what an actual star symbol looks like), in which the water vapor travels up through the center of the droplet, causing it to pull apart into three or more points until it can come back together once the vapor has been released—only to pull apart again when more vaporization occurs, of course.
Fans of Mythbusters might also remember the Leidenfrost Effect from that time Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage stuck their hands into molten lead without getting burned, because the rapidly evaporating water that they’d put their hands in just before protected them from the heat. Don’t try that at home, friends.
(via io9)
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