Viscous bouncing
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Updated: Dec 14, 2025

Bouncing Ball with a Uniformly Varying Velocity in a Metronome Synchronization Task
Published on: September 21, 2017
Aditya Jha1, Pierre Chantelot1, Christophe Clanet1
1PMMH, UMR 7636 du CNRS, ESPCI-Paris, PSL Research University, 75005 Paris, France and LadHyX, UMR 7646 du CNRS, École Polytechnique, 91128 Palaiseau, France.
Abstract:
Repellent materials are known for their ability to make impacting water recoil and takeoff, which keeps them dry after rain. Here we show that the ability of drops to bounce can be extended by two orders of magnitude, in terms of the liquid viscosity. We measure and model two main characteristics of these viscous rebounds, namely the contact time of the drops and the elasticity of the collision, which allows us to understand how and why viscous liquids can be repelled by hydrophobic solids.
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