Eight identical small drops of water are falling down vertically through a medium, each with terminal…

Eight identical small drops of water are falling down vertically through a medium, each with terminal velocity $v$. If they combine to form a single drop, then its terminal velocity will be
  1. $3 v$
  2. $6 v$
  3. $5 v$
  4. $4 v$

Solution

Let $R$, and $r$ be the radii of the big and small drops respectively. The volume of the big drop $=8 \times$ volume of one small drops $\begin{aligned} & \therefore \frac{4}{2} \pi R^3=8 \times \frac{4}{3} \pi r^3 \\ & \therefore R^3=(2 r)^3 \therefore R=2 r\end{aligned}$ The terminal velocity of a drop $v \propto(\text { radius })^2$ $\begin{aligned} & \therefore \frac{V}{v}=\frac{R^2}{r^2}=\frac{(2 r)^2}{r^3}=4 \\ & \therefore V=4 v\end{aligned}$ ~

Asked in: MHT CET 2022 (06 Aug Shift 2)

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