# Chemistry - Why are water droplets shaped like that?

From the Wikipedia article on surface tension:

Surface tension is responsible for the shape of liquid droplets. Although easily deformed, droplets of water tend to be pulled into a spherical shape by the cohesive forces of the surface layer. In the absence of other forces, including gravity, drops of virtually all liquids would be approximately spherical. The spherical shape minimizes the necessary "wall tension" of the surface layer according to Laplace's law.

In short, the more surface tension is, the rounder shapes of water you get. And the opposite goes for gravitational potential energy: The lesser gravitational acceleration results in more spherical droplets of water.

The symbol for surface tension is $\gamma$.

$\gamma (\ce{H2O}) = 72.8~\mathrm{dyn~cm^{-1}}$ (at $20~\mathrm{^\circ C}$)
$\gamma (\text{mercury}) = 465~\mathrm{dyn~cm^{-1}}$ (at $20~\mathrm{^\circ C}$)[1]

That's the reason you hardly ever see mercury drops out of their spherical shape.

In short

The spherical shape minimizes then necessary "wall tension" of the surface layer according to Laplace's law.[2]

Oh and I almost forgot: This great article - Antonin Marchand, Joost H. Weijs, Jacco H. Snoeijer, and Bruno Andreott, Why is surface tension a force parallel to the interface?. Physique et Mecanique des Milieux Heterogenes, 2012 - is very nice in case you wanted to do additional study in the case.

References:

1. R Nave. Surface Tension. URL (accessed April 25th, 2018)
2. R Nave. Surface Tension and Droplets. URL (accessed April 25th, 2018)