I will teach you the principle of "Water Splash Disappearance Technique". It depends on you how much you can understand.

Audit expert: Luo Huiqian

Researcher at the Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, science writer

Not long ago, at the 2023 Diving World Cup-Montreal Station, Chinese diving athlete Quan Hongchan scored full marks in both 407C (three and a half somersaults inward with knees tucked) and 207C (three and a half somersaults backward with knees tucked), and finally won the championship in the women's individual 10-meter diving platform event again!

Quan Hongchan diving source丨News photo

In addition to Quan Hongchan, the Chinese diving team also achieved remarkable results in other events, such as winning the gold medal in the women's synchronized 3-meter springboard event.

The Chinese diving team not only performed very standard and smooth movements in the air, their "water splash disappearing technique" also made many netizens talk about it with relish. The discussion about their water splash once attracted hundreds of millions of readings.

Source of hot search topic丨Weibo screenshot

So why do these athletes make such small splashes when they enter the water? Is there any special trick to their movements? After some research, the editor found the answer.

Before explaining how splashes disappear, let us first understand why splashes appear when objects are thrown into water?

Where does the splash come from?

When talking about the phenomenon of objects creating splashes when they enter water, we have to mention an important principle in fluid mechanics - the Archimedean principle .

This is a law discovered by the ancient Greek scientist Archimedes: when an object enters a static fluid, the volume of fluid displaced by the object is exactly equal to the volume of the object itself immersed in the fluid, so the buoyancy of the object is equal to the weight of the fluid displaced by the object.

Archimedes discovered the principles of fluids in a bathtub

Source: Baidu Encyclopedia

When an object is dropped into a liquid with a certain initial velocity, the object will collide with the liquid surface and displace the liquid during the continuous immersion process. At this time, if the viscosity coefficient of the liquid itself is low (that is, it has good fluidity, such as tap water), the overflowing part of the liquid will splash above the liquid surface, which is what we call "water splash".

Honey source: pixabay

However, if the viscosity of the liquid itself is high (i.e. poor fluidity, such as honey), there will most likely be no "splash" after being hit.

How did the splash "disappear"?

Whether the splash is big or small depends on many factors.

The first is the size of the object . The larger the object and the larger the area in contact with the water surface, the bigger the splash will be.

Secondly, the speed and angle at which an object enters the water will also affect the size of the splash . The faster the entry speed, the faster the water is discharged, and the larger the splash. When entering the water vertically at 90 degrees, the splash produced is the smallest.

In actual sports, divers have to achieve the "disappearing splash technique", which requires them to pay special attention to the action of entering the water.

When entering the water, in order to reduce contact with the water surface, athletes will straighten their elbows, clamp their arms against their heads and hold them close to their ears, and keep their bodies in the middle.

When entering the water, athletes straighten their bodies, aligning their torso, head, and neck so that they are in line and perpendicular to the horizontal plane.

This process requires the coordinated efforts of muscles throughout the body. Only in this way can the impact force during the collision be avoided from affecting the correct posture of entering the water and producing obvious splashes.

Press your palms flat on the water surface before entering the water Source: News Photo

Secondly, pay attention to the posture of your palms and body when entering the water.

Some people may think that if you put your fingers together like "hands clasped together" when entering the water, the splash will be smaller, but the opposite is true.

After research, scientists have concluded that in fluid mechanics, when a wedge-shaped object enters the water, the tip will contact the water and move in the direction of least resistance, causing a larger splash; while when a square object enters the water, due to the larger contact area, the water mainly moves in the horizontal direction, and the splash is smaller.

Source: Internet pictures

Therefore, divers will adopt the "flat palm entry" method to enter the water vertically, and use their palms to suppress the splash at the moment of entering the water, so that the splash during the entry process is relatively small.

The complete posture of "entering the water with flat palm" is to stretch one palm flat and straight with five fingers together, while the other hand grasps the back of the hand with five fingers clasped together and the wrist joint dorsiflexed 90 degrees.

Flat palm entry

Source: Comparison of four water splash techniques, Du Huiying, Journal of Chengdu Sports University, 1991

Not only the key hand movements when entering the water, but also the athlete's body posture is very important. If the body posture is streamlined when entering the water, a layer of airflow will form on the surface of the body, increasing the viscosity between the surface of the body and the water, which also helps to reduce splashes.

In addition, after entering the water, athletes will also perform movements such as "sliding arms" and "body rolling", which also help reduce splashing.

Although it is impossible to achieve "zero splash" in actual diving, even if there is "no splash" visible to the naked eye, clues can still be seen under the camera.

However, the charm of sports lies in human perseverance and resilience in constantly breaking through physical limits.

Through continuous training and hard work, Chinese athletes have perfected every move and presented the audience with a perfect "water splash disappearing technique" with their superb skills. I believe that in the days to come, athletes will achieve even better results and leave China's name in the history of world sports.