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The sound of a leaking faucet is extremely annoying and can keep you awake all night. However, researchers believe that they have identified the cause of this noise and also a simple solution to stop it.
Researchers at the University of Cambridge have used ultrafast cameras and sophisticated audio capture techniques to discover that the painful sound of "plink, plink" is not caused by the water drop that is affecting a liquid surface. Instead, noise is created by the movement of a small air bubble trapped under the surface of the water. If we can change the surface tension of water by adding something like a dish soap, we can prevent that noise.
"A lot of work has been done on the physical mechanics of a drip faucet, but little has been done about the sound," said Dr. Anurag Agarwal, a principal investigator at the University of Cambridge. "But thanks to modern video and audio technology, we can finally know exactly where the sound comes from, which can help us stop it."
Agarwal decided to investigate this problem by visiting a friend in Brazil in 2016. His friend's house had a small leak in the roof. During the trip, Agarwal could not sleep at all because of the continuous flow of a leaking roof.
"While I was awakened by the sound of water falling into a bucket under the leak, I started thinking about this problem," he said. "The next day, I discussed it with my friend and another academic, and we were all surprised that no one really answered the question of what causes the sound."
To find out, Agarwal has set up an experiment. He placed an ultra-high speed camera, a microphone and an underwater microphone and used them to capture the exact moment when a droplet falls into a water tank.
Researchers have long known that a droplet of water that strikes the surface causes the formation of a cavity. The cavity rapidly recoils due to the surface tension of the liquid and creates a small column of liquid. The fast process also results in an air bubble trapped under the water.
Previous studies have suggested that the sound "plink" is caused by the impact itself. In the last effort, researchers found that plink occurs only when a droplet of water lands in the water. If it lands on a dry surface, it produces only a heavy and dull sound. This means that the real source of sound is the trapped air bubble.
"By using high-speed cameras and high-sensitivity microphones, we were able to directly observe the oscillation of the air bubble for the first time, showing that the air bubble is the main driving force of the his submarine and feather air. "his," said researcher Sam Phillips. "However, the aerial noise is not just the underwater sound field that expands to the surface, as previously thought."
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