Water in a Upside Down Glass Shouldn’t Fall

By Anupum Pant

The simplest and most mundane things can turn out to be really interesting sometimes, if you look carefully. For instance, look at a glass of water, ordinary water. Turn it upside down and the water falls. Actually it shouldn’t!

Yes, gravity acts on it, but the amount of force atmospheric pressure acts on it is enough to support the column of water even when the glass is upside down. It falls because the water surface isn’t flat. And since the pressure acts differently on different parts of the surface, due to minor deviations on the surface, the surface gets deformed and there is an avalanche of force imbalance. Eventually the water gets pulled down by the gravity. This happens too quickly for you to see.

Now, if you use a piece of paper to keep the surface of water perfectly flat, the pressure acts up evenly on water and gravity isn’t able to pull down the water. Nikola demonstrates…

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