Surface Tension

How does salt float on water, despite its particles being very fixed and heavy?

Salt has small square-shaped grains similar to that of a diamond cut.

The seawater retained in some basins prevent:

• the continuous agitation of the waves
• the influx of fresh water from the rains and rivers constantly flowing into the ocean.

During hot and dry weather, the action of the sun has enough force to evaporate the fresh water particles that are rolled around those of the salt.

The water’s surface is always very smooth and even, as is the case with all other liquids.

This is because:

• the water particles move among themselves in the same way and with the same momentum
• the air particles that touch it also move among themselves in the same way as each other
  • But these do not move in the same way or to the same extent as those of the water.

Surface Tension: Difference Between 2 Air-Aethers

The air-aether around the air particles moves quite differently from the air-aether particles around the water particles.

This causes their surfaces to rub against each other, becoming polished. This is similar to 2 hard bodies, except that it happens much more easily and almost instantly.

This is because their particles are not attached to each other. And so, they can arrange themselves as required from the first moment.*

This is why the water’s surface is much harder to divide from the outside than the inside.

This is why:

• small steel needles can float and be supported on the water’s surface as long as the surface is not divided.

When it is divided, they sink to the bottom without stopping.

When the heat of the air is great enough to form salt, it can:

• expel some of the pliant parts from the seawater and cause them to rise as vapor
• lift them quickly that before they can unfold from around the salt particles, they reach the water’s surface where they finish unfolding only after the hole they made to exit has closed.

As a result, these salt particles remain floating alone on the surface, as represented around D.

Being laid lengthwise, they are not heavy enough to sink, just like the steel needles mentioned earlier.

They only cause the surface to bend and curve slightly under them due to their weight, just as those needles do.

Thus, the first salt particles, scattered on this surface, create several small pits or curves.

The subsequent parts find themselves on the slopes of these pits. These roll and slide towards the bottom, where they join with the first ones.

Wherever they come from, they must lie precisely side by side with these first ones, as you see around E, at least the second ones, and often also the third ones.

Through this, they descend somewhat lower than they could if they remained in any other position, like those seen around F, G, or H. The movement of the heat, which always slightly agitates this surface, helps arrange them in this way.