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Ok scientists, why does this phenomenon happen?...

mstdn.social/@stux/10945061580

(It's a toot by @stux showing a thin layer of water flowing over the rim of a small dam (maybe .5 meters high). When a stick is touched onto the layer of flowing water, it changes it's flow pattern and instead of clicking to the downward side of the wall of the dam it flows outward, away from the dam wall and directly into the body of water downstream from the dam. At first it changes right at the spot where the stick touches, but then in a cascading fashion the new flow pattern ripples all the way across the dam.)

spoiler - possible puzzle answer 

@stux

***possible spoiler of puzzle question***
(see previous toot in this thread)

I think it has something to do with the molecular adhesion between the water molecules and the molecules of the face of the dam wall. When the stick provides an alternate adhesion surface for the water to follow, it follows the path outward away from the dam wall due to the inertia of the flowing water and the cohesion of the molecules of liquid water. Then the cohesion of the water flowing outward pulls the adjacent water away from the dam water, widening that flow patterns, recursively across the dam.

That's my guess.

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@Pat @stux ""When I meet God, I am going to ask him two questions: why relativity? And why turbulence? I really believe [God] will have an answer for the first." - Werner Heisenberg

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