Ganesha and the miracle of capillarity

Leviathan Press:

There is actually an interesting idea about the capillary phenomenon - we all know that the increase in the position of an object means the increase in gravitational potential energy. Since water can "flow to a higher place" through the capillary effect, does that mean that this does not conform to the second law of gravity? With the capillary effect, is it possible to create a perpetual motion machine?

Perpetual motion machines are indeed a perpetual motion topic, but unfortunately capillary phenomena cannot break the deadlock of "it is impossible to make perpetual motion machines". At first glance, the potential energy of water does increase, but if we want to use this potential energy, we must do extra work (such as twisting a towel) - a bit like using a magnet to attract iron nails. My grandfather Iyah told me some stories.

He told me how Ganesha, the elephant-headed god, circled his parents three times when he was asked to circle the universe three times; how Rama protected all the panicked children and how his breathing resonated with the sound of the flute to create a thrilling and beautiful melody. There was also some information about Saraswati - how she was the goddess of knowledge and education, how education was the most sacred gift in the world - and he donated a temple to this goddess.

He told me that during the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, the water that washed ashore at Chennai was 50 feet higher than the Hindu temple. Despite the raging waves that carried a lot of debris inland from all directions, the open-air granite shrine remained intact.

"Come here, I want to talk to you," Ya began one evening. His hair was gray, his skin as wrinkled as his rumpled handkerchief. He occasionally wiped his wet, blind right eye. I followed him to the sofa in his apartment in Queens, where he sank slightly into the cushions. The sofa cover was faded and worn, but the pattern was still bright and vivid - the years had hidden the colorful circles.

Ya told me that on September 21, 1995, Ganesha sent a signal to humanity, an act that shocked millions of Hindus around the world and has become famous ever since. While most devotees simply left basins of milk at the bottom of Ganesha's shrine, a man from New Delhi tried to feed the deity milk early in the morning. The devotee was surprised to find that the liquid disappeared from the metal spoon he tilted towards Ganesha's lips. He called nearby priests and tried to feed the deity again himself, and the priests confirmed what he saw.

As word spread, temples across India and abroad soon attracted thousands of people to worship the God of New Beginnings, or the Remover of Obstacles, and watch him drink milk. That day, milk sales in New Delhi soared 30%, with some stores selling more than 25,000 pints. Crowds of people flocked to temples across the country to pray, especially in New Delhi, paralyzing traffic. People came to local temples with bells, incense sticks, tins and garlands of yellow marigolds, knelt in front of Ganesha's shrine and thanked him for his guidance.

Of course, the idea of ​​a divine revelation has been met with skepticism by scientists. Researchers from India's Ministry of Science and Technology came to the temple to test another hypothesis: that the milk vanished due to capillary action - the tendency of liquids to flow into narrow spaces, a process that can occur even without the help of external forces such as gravity, or even against them. The scientists went to the temple where the "miracle" was first reported and conducted an experiment using milk dyed with food coloring.

As the liquid in the spoon gradually decreased and disappeared, the dyed milk diffused into the idol, covering its surface with the same color. Scientists explained that the idol had always absorbed milk in this way. However, because the thin layer of milk had almost no color, the process of liquid diffusion could not be observed before. A summary news in the New York Times on September 22, 1995, quipped in the subtitle: "Some Hindus Flock But Scientists Mock."

Yet, aside from the gullible people to whom the harmonious rhyme of the New York Times subtitle alludes, capillarity is by no means a widely understood scientific principle. It is based on adhesion, cohesion, and surface tension, properties that exist in many liquids. Cohesion describes the attraction between water molecules. For example, a water droplet assumes a spherical shape because each water molecule is surrounded by other water molecules. Adhesion and cohesion combine to explain the "stickiness" of water, which is also reflected in the droplets that cling to windows after a rainstorm.

Finally, surface tension is a property of a liquid that exists at the surface of the liquid and allows the liquid to resist external forces due to the cohesion of the molecules. For example, when you fill a cup or beaker with water, you can see a slight dip at the edge of the water. This dip is caused by surface tension and is called the "meniscus". The cohesion of the water molecules and the adhesion of the water molecules to the glass cause the "line" on the water surface to have a certain curvature.

Capillary action occurs when the adhesion between liquid molecules and the container is greater than the cohesion between the liquid molecules; and how high the capillary action can make water rise depends on surface tension and gravity. The upward movement of liquid can only depend on the ratio of adhesion and cohesion to surface tension. The thinner the tube, the greater the relative surface area inside, and the higher the liquid in it that is capillary action can rise relative to a tube with a larger diameter.

In Ganesha's "miracle", the surface tension of the milk pulls the milk up and away from the spoon before it drips from the idol due to gravity. Since the idols in temples are mostly made of porous materials such as ceramic or stone and decorated with flowers, stems and branches, there are many pores that can "suck" the milk through capillary action.

Although capillary action is ubiquitous in nature, it wasn’t formally identified until the late 15th century by Leonardo da Vinci—who pre-empted several prominent scientists who had noticed the phenomenon. More than a century later, in 1660, Irish chemist Robert Boyle conducted experiments to study capillary action. However, it wasn’t until the early 19th century that two researchers offered a quantitative explanation.

In 1805, Thomas Young and Pierre Simon-Laplace derived the Young-Laplace formula that explained capillarity. In 1830, Carl Friedrich Gauss modified the math. (Technically, he took into account the "conditional margin" associated with the "liquid-solid boundary.") In 1900, Einstein submitted a paper titled "Consequences of the observations of capillarity phenomena" to Annalen der Physik, one of the world's oldest physics journals. It was Einstein's first published paper.

It’s worth noting that, despite the history of famous scientists studying capillary action, the phenomenon happens all the time and everywhere. It can seem awe-inspiring when you don’t think about it. Of course, the freak “apparition” of Ganesha on the surface is just one example of capillary action happening outside of a scientific laboratory.

Another example is the flow of tears. It is capillary action that causes the tear ducts in our eyes to release tears, a process that cleans the eyes and removes any dust and particles from around the ducts of the eye. Capillary action also helps plants achieve a very important step in their self-sufficiency. When you plant a seed and it germinates - when the roots grab onto the soil - you feed the seedling by watering the bottom of the pot or the ground in the garden. The plant's roots absorb nutrients from the soil using the principle of capillary action. Trees rely on capillary action to absorb water, supply oxygen to their surroundings, and continue to grow branches, flowers, and fruits.

Although still in the theoretical stage, scientists have envisioned using capillary action to create renewable energy. The idea is that through capillary action, water can climb upward and when it reaches the top, evaporate, condense and flow back to the bottom, turning turbines to generate energy. Capillary action will create electricity.

Did Ganesha really drink milk on September 21, 1995? We have plenty of evidence to suggest otherwise, and capillarity is at the heart of it once again. But does that mean that when we (consciously) experience it, we should be less in awe? Perhaps understanding the science and history behind capillarity can inspire curiosity about the mundane—think about how capillarity can sustain an apple orchard or help restore a patch of land after a wildfire. As the New York Times excerpt put it, “science” and “miracle” don’t have to be incompatible.

Ya once lived in such a timeless wonder that he said, "God is not only everywhere, but also in everyone and everything." Ya believed that God was present in all people and made human contact sacred. "Being kind to others is like praying in a temple," he said. He believed that God was integrated into every corner of nature - including the architectural "miracles" behind capillary action. For him, there was no conflict between faith and the unparalleled scientific phenomena. Capillary action has the most simple appeal, and it is essential to the normal functioning of our bodies and the environment. There is certainly something to marvel at, and even something to "make a fuss about."

By Serena Alagappan

Translated by Carlyle

Proofreading/Dragon Fruit

Original article/blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/the-miracle-of-capillary-action/

This article is based on a Creative Commons License (BY-NC) and is published by Carlyle on Leviathan

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