Dynamics of a vertically vibrating mercury drop

Abstract

The dynamics of vertically vibrating liquid drops has been studied by several researchers and different phenomena have been reported. In the present work, we report experimental results for some interesting phenomena that can be observed in a liquid drop subjected to vertical vibrations. For this purpose, a drop of Mercury was kept on a spherical watch glass and it was perturbed with different amplitudes and frequencies. The oscillations of the drop were recorded using a video camera and image analysis was used to further understand its behavior. The method of correlation was then employed to analyze the videos recorded with different perturbations. We report phenomena like subharmonic oscillations and rotation of the drop; and also the resonance and superpropulsion in the droplet ejection.