As any of you who read this, who know me know that I am a nerd. A bit of a fan of science. So yesterday I tripped across some science by accident. Some time after I realized the last thing I ate was some gummy bears at 2pm and some toast at 11:30m and it was 5:30pm. So Went for some fast food and headed off to summit lake to escape the heat.
I did not end up swimming but the spot was in the shade and the water made for a cool retreat from the blasting heat of the summer. As I was wading to cool off I noticed the mini toads that populate that lake. The populate the shores of that lake in great multitudes the vast majority barely 1cm long, most greyish brown and some yellowie green. I noticed something sciencey after watching them for a while. Surface Tension.
It turns out that the little fellows are so small that like a water-strider or any thing small enough they stick to the surface of the water. So here were these little toads their legs kicking just like you would expect but the tops of there bodies were dry and the water around them was dented in just like the area around a water-striders foot. What stuck me as interesting was that the toads seemed to be right at the upper end of the size range where that kind of interaction is possible. They live at the upper limit of where surface forces dominate.
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