Understanding leaves' resiliency when it rains | Cornell Chronicle

Senior author Sunghwan Jung notes that upon impact, the board acts like a springboard: "the board goes down, the drop is elongated up. And when the board is going up, the drop is pushing down. They are moving in opposite ways, which causes a strong damping effect, less vibration, and that's beneficial for the plant." This insight illustrates the biomechanical benefits plants experience during rainfall.

Lead author Crystal Fowler explains the observed deviation from models: "When the beam is a certain length, the water drop deforms and moves more, and the oscillation of the beam slows more quickly. This discrepancy kept showing up in every graph. We found that when the natural frequency of the beam aligns with the natural frequency of the droplet, the droplet moves so much more." This highlights unique physical interactions at play.

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