Fog drops on web

 

A recent posting showed a few characteristics of fog: fog wave. However, fog offers a far richer variety of features than those I showed there. Here is one more: fog drops that have collected on a spider’s web. 

Similar pictures offered on the web are almost always described as being dew drops on a spider’s web. This is patent nonsense. For dew to condense on an object, there must be a marked temperature difference between that object and the air. The thread of a spider’s web is much too narrow to sustain such a temperature difference. Dew does not form on a web.

However, as a collection net for fog drops drifting past, a spider’s web is superb. While large obstacles distort the movement of the air flowing past them so that the fog drops are merely carried around them, the threads of a spider’s web are so tiny that they intersect and collect the fog drops.

Fog drops collect on a spider’s web.

 

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3 Responses to Fog drops on web

  1. Margo says:

    Thank you for a definitive answer to this conundrum! I have tried, forever it seems, to emulate your image.

  2. jo groff says:

    Wow! Beautiful photo : )

  3. birthe says:

    If only I had my camera with me yesterday when I saw a similar web on John’s Walk.
    But I didn’t

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