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It’s the little things (sh.itjust.works)
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[-] spiffpitt@lemmy.world 25 points 3 weeks ago

wouldn't this evaporate extremely quick though?

[-] Signtist@bookwyr.me 13 points 3 weeks ago

Yeah, I'll often spread spilled water across the table just so that it evaporates within a couple minutes.

[-] anomnom@sh.itjust.works 3 points 3 weeks ago

Must be nice living somewhere dry. I’d just end up with a moldy table a day later.

[-] uriel238@lemmy.blahaj.zone 17 points 3 weeks ago

The water would react similarly to alcohol. Yes, the puddle would be bigger but it would evaporate faster.

[-] LostXOR@fedia.io 16 points 3 weeks ago

For a liquid to be a liquid, rather than a gas, it needs to be held together by intermolecular forces. Which means it will have some amount of surface tension. I therefore dismiss this hypothetical as physically unrealistic! :P

[-] _stranger_@lemmy.world 4 points 3 weeks ago

supercritical helium does some really weird shit, I'd call this one plausible.

[-] LostXOR@fedia.io 6 points 3 weeks ago

Supercritical fluids are more like a gas than a liquid. Their lack of surface tension means they'll diffuse throughout whatever container you put them in, so they can't really be "poured" like a liquid can. They're actually a pretty good example of why liquids need surface tension to be liquid.

[-] _stranger_@lemmy.world 3 points 3 weeks ago

that's a pretty good point, it's literally trapped between being a liquid and a gas. If this was BattleBots, they'd let it compete once and then ban it.

[-] thebestaquaman@lemmy.world 3 points 3 weeks ago

"Trapped between liquid and gas" is kind of the opposite of what a supercritical fluid is. It's more that gas and liquid states are "trapped" in a region of phase space, while supercritical fluids exist in the place where the demarcation between the two no longer exists (which is usually a far larger region than where it does).

[-] drosophila@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 3 weeks ago

I think they meant to say superfluid helium.

[-] zout@fedia.io 3 points 3 weeks ago

Superfluid. It can be supercritical, but superfluid is the special thing for helium.

[-] SatansMaggotyCumFart@piefed.world 1 points 3 weeks ago

You do some pretty weird shit.

[-] betahack@lemmy.world 11 points 3 weeks ago

look....I'm just glad roaches don't have sharp teeth and spiders can't fly.

let's stop while we're ahead

[-] EmpathicVagrant@lemmy.world 7 points 3 weeks ago

When some spiders are born, sometimes hundreds at a time, they cast little parachute webs and ride the wind to wherever they might go.

Palmetto bugs are like mean flying roaches that bite.

You’ll never escape the horrors of the beauty in nature.

[-] jjfolken@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 3 weeks ago

Let's stop ~~while we're ahead~~

[-] lemmy_outta_here@lemmy.world 11 points 3 weeks ago

at least it wouldn’t wet your socks. i think capillary action relies on surface tension

[-] thebestaquaman@lemmy.world 14 points 3 weeks ago

It relies on differences in surface tension. If a liquid has a lower surface tension (energy) towards one surface than another, you get the typical capillary effect. In the case of water, the water-air energy is lower than the water- energy, so you get a capillary effect.

If water had exactly zero surface tension against every interface,

  • it would not exhibit any capillary action
  • life on earth would cease to exist quite quickly
  • your socks would remain dry
[-] samus12345@sh.itjust.works 17 points 3 weeks ago

life on earth would cease to exist quite quickly

your socks would remain dry

[-] BedInspector@lemmy.world 10 points 3 weeks ago

Well if water didn't have its unique properties of cohesion and adhesion we likely wouldn't be here anyways.

[-] JaymesRS@piefed.world 8 points 3 weeks ago

This reminds me of the person that suggested in a response to a request for ADHD “life-hacks” where they would wet one of their socks before starting a specific high-importance task and could not take it off until the specified task was completed.

[-] Ruthalas@infosec.pub 7 points 3 weeks ago

That is a weapons-grade life hack right there.

[-] EldenLord@lemmy.world 6 points 3 weeks ago

I see, quite similar to the ol’ light-your-hair-on-fire-to-motivate-yourself-to-shower trick. Clever!

[-] Almacca@aussie.zone 5 points 3 weeks ago

Now think about what would happen if ice didn't float.

[-] dejected_warp_core@lemmy.world 11 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

I'm not a geologist, but I'm imagine that the deep ocean would be a colossal underwater glacier, with intermixed sedimentary layers. Kind of like what we have with methane hydrate deposits, only much, much deeper. The super-deep ocean simply wouldn't exist, and we might not even know about the Mariana Trench, or a lot of other sea floor features. Also, it's possible a different proportion of the world's water would be frozen in this way.

With ice as a part of the sea floor, it would also interact with subduction zones at continental edges. That might push a LOT more superheated water into volcanoes, faults, and everywhere else water could go. That would probably make for a lot more geysers in such areas, and volcanic eruptions would be far more energetic.

The trajectory of human history and technology would also be changed. There might have been fewer ice bridges between continents during the last ice age. Ice-skating wouldn't become as common a thing until we get refrigeration. Harvesting ice in the winter would require bodies of water to freeze solid first, making it impractical except in shallow areas.

I'm also going to wager that glaciers would behave differently too. I don't know enough about their dynamics, but I wonder if having meltwater on the bottom helps lubricate their movements somewhat. Kind of like a lava flow, only slower. Inverting that relationship might make glaciers far less mobile.

[-] pixeltree@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 3 weeks ago

Hmm, might small bodies of water, say pusdle to pond size, still freeze from the top down because of exposure to colder air and above freezing earth? If the top freezes over all at once it might stay on top unless something breaks it and allows water to flow from under to over

[-] Almacca@aussie.zone 1 points 3 weeks ago

Yeah, not good. It's kind of a weird quirk of nature that water is pretty unique in that it gets less dense when it's a solid as well.

[-] MrSulu@lemmy.ml 4 points 3 weeks ago

We would not have life! Water is a polar molecule that is very different from most other liquids. Its the specific surface tension properties that help to create life. The reason why we search for planets with water. We've never worked out a way for any life to exists without the amazing H2O.

[-] icelimit@lemmy.ml 1 points 3 weeks ago

Now imagine what wonders we could have if there were a few other quicky molecules.

[-] RaivoKulli@sopuli.xyz 4 points 3 weeks ago

Would that mean that if you jumped into the Atlantic you'd just fall to the bottom? Or would that be due to buoyancy or something

[-] DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social 3 points 3 weeks ago

Then your cells would die and plants wouldn't exist

[-] CannedYeet@lemmy.world 2 points 3 weeks ago

You can add a wetting agent to water to decrease the surface tension

[-] Robin@lemmy.world 1 points 3 weeks ago

wetter water

[-] yucandu@lemmy.world 2 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

That's how gasoline spills (on water) work. They cover the water about one molecule thick.

[-] RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 2 points 3 weeks ago

So you’re saying my floor needs to be water?

[-] don@lemmy.ca 2 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

At 2 micrometers, it’s going to evaporate too fast for there to be a ~~puddle~~ thin film of water.

[-] MyTurtleSwimsUpsideDown@fedia.io 1 points 3 weeks ago

Oh! The humidity!

[-] ramenshaman@lemmy.world 1 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

That would actually be a very useful tool for machinists. I think it would make it much easier to find out how non-flat something is

[-] eager_eagle@lemmy.world 1 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

I think that's part of our anthropic bias, not sure we'd be alive without water's surface tension in order to observe this.

[-] theUwUhugger@lemmy.world 0 points 3 weeks ago

Well cells wouldn’t be circle shaped, but would it actually be to the detriment of life in that or other ways?

Maybe cells could take a more pragmatic shape, like tactical dicks

[-] idiomaddict@lemmy.world 2 points 3 weeks ago

Trees wouldn’t exist, so life would definitely look different.

[-] theUwUhugger@lemmy.world 1 points 3 weeks ago
[-] idiomaddict@lemmy.world 1 points 3 weeks ago

Capillary action doesn’t happen without surface tension, so long stemmed woody plants are out. Iirc, mushrooms were not super common before trees and spread by decomposing them, so those are gone too

[-] eager_eagle@lemmy.world 2 points 3 weeks ago

I think that could make some life-supporting chemical reactions difficult to happen, but I'm not qualified to judge that.

[-] theUwUhugger@lemmy.world 0 points 3 weeks ago

I don’t, not that I am qualified to say so either! The larger surface area might be beneficial for osmosis!

[-] ivanafterall@lemmy.world 0 points 3 weeks ago

I'm also not qualified, but I do wonder whether releasing all that surface tension inside us would alleviate a lot of anxiety. I think yes.

[-] DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social 1 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

I'm qualified, our brains would immediately stop functioning and that does tend to relieve anxiety.

[-] MyTurtleSwimsUpsideDown@fedia.io 1 points 3 weeks ago

Bold of you to assume my floor is level.

[-] Eggymatrix@sh.itjust.works 1 points 3 weeks ago

Not only that, but level with 2 micrometers tolerance is something only specialized CNC milling workbenches achieve

[-] rumba@lemmy.zip 1 points 3 weeks ago

We're 60% water and not really water-tight as it is.

[-] OddMinus1@sh.itjust.works 1 points 3 weeks ago

It would instead instantly make it extremely obvious how uneven my floor is.

this post was submitted on 15 Jul 2025
227 points (100.0% liked)

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