Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #gaitergate
Most recents (2)
1/ Some prelim observations: When shooting 100 micron water droplets at a strip of Buff-brand neck gaiter (95% polyester, 5% spandex, woven - material is more important than style) at ~1 m/sec, I saw no droplet breakup and no transmission through the mask. 
2/ In the image above, I was personally surprised to see that 100,000 droplets actually accumulated into a macroscopic drop that didn't drip through the mask; the wonders of surface tension.
3/ While this isn't the exact conditions nor droplet composition relevant to talking with a mask on, this does show that mask material isn't somehow defying established droplet physics and shearing droplets in an unexpected way.
Further evidence any covering is better than none
Further evidence any covering is better than none
We tested neck gaiter performance for reducing exhaled particles when worn by a person speaking...results differ quite a bit from a conventional test using manikins (see ). Why? Read on (it's not droplet shattering #gaitergate) 1/n
When speaking the Rainbow Passage, we observe more particles when wearing this polyester gaiter than without (method: see Asadi et al. 2019/2020). But is this droplet shattering? To test this we "fake read" the same passage but without making any noise & breathing very little 2/n
The result: very few particles with no mask but a ton with the mask (single or double layer). The friction from face/gaiter rubbing seems to be generating particles from the mask. What's that you say? It could still be droplet shattering? 3/n
