Apuddle is a small accumulation of liquid, usually water, on a surface.[1] It can form either by pooling in a depression on the surface, or bysurface tension upon a flat surface. Puddles are often characterized by murky water ormud due to the disturbance and dissolving of surrounding sediment, primarily due toprecipitation.
Generally a puddle is shallow enough to walk through, and too small to traverse with aboat orraft. Small wildlife may be attracted to puddles.
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Puddles innatural landscapes andhabitats, when not resulting fromprecipitation, can indicate the presence of aseep orspring. Small seasonalriparian plants,grasses, andwildflowers can germinate with the ephemeral "head start" of moisture provided by a puddle.
Small wildlife, such as birds and insects, can use puddles as a source of essential moisture or for bathing. Raised constructed puddles,bird baths, are a part of domestic andwildlife gardens as agarden ornament and "micro-habitat"restoration.Swallows use the damploam which gathers in puddles as a form ofcement to help to build their nests. Manybutterfly species and some other insects, but particularly male butterflies, need puddles fornutrients they can contain, such assalts andamino acids. In a behaviour known aspuddling they seek out the damp mud that can be found around the edge of the puddles.[2]
For some smaller forms of life, such astadpoles ormosquito larvae, a puddle can form an entire habitat. Puddles that do not evaporate quickly can becomestanding water, which can becomepolluted by decaying organisms and are often home to breedingmosquitos, which can act as vectors for diseases such asmalaria and, of more recent concern in certain areas of the world,West Nile virus.
Puddles commonly form duringrain, and can cause problems for transport. Due to the angle of the road, puddles tend to be forced by gravity to gather on the edges of the road. This can causesplashing as cars drive through the puddles, which causes water to be sprayed ontopedestrians on the pavement. Irresponsible drivers may do this deliberately, which, in some countries, can lead to prosecution for careless driving.[3]
Puddles commonly form inpotholes in a dirt road, or in any other space with a shallow depression and dirt. In such cases, these are sometimes referred to asmud puddles, because mud tends to form in the bottoms, resulting in dirtied wheels or boots when disturbed.
In order to deal with puddles, roads and pavements are often built with acamber (technically called 'crowning'), being slightlyconvex in nature, to force puddles to drain into the gutter, which hasstorm drain grates to allow the water to drain into the sewers. In addition, some surfaces are made to be porous, allowing the water to drain through the surface to theaquifer below.
Due to the action ofsurface tension, small puddles can also form if a liquid is spilt on a level surface. Puddles like this are common on kitchen floors. Puddles tend toevaporate quickly due to the high surface-area-to-volume ratio. In cold conditions puddles can formpatches of ice which are slippery and difficult to see and can be a hazard to road vehicles and pedestrians.
Puddles are a source of recreation for children, who often like jumping in puddles as an "up-side" to rain.[4][5][6][7] A children'snursery rhyme records the story ofDoctor Foster and his encounter with a puddle in Gloucester. Muddy puddles, and the pleasures of splashing mud in them, are a repeated theme in the children's animationPeppa Pig, to the extent of selling character-brandedWellington boots.
It has been fashionable for millennia, and continues to be fashionable in some circles, to believe the Universe is designed for humans. Some critics of this view reject it ashubris oranthropocentrism and argue instead that through the process of evolution it is humans that have adapted to or been shaped by the Universe.[8][9][10] In his bookThe Salmon of Doubt,Douglas Adams satirizes this belief that the universe is designed for humans:[11]
Imagine a puddle waking up one morning and thinking, 'This is an interesting world I find myself in, an interesting hole I find myself in, fits me rather neatly, doesn't it? In fact, it fits me staggeringly well, must have been made to have me in it!' This is such a powerful idea that as the sun rises in the sky and the air heats up and as, gradually, the puddle gets smaller and smaller, it's still frantically hanging on to the notion that everything's going to be all right, because this World was meant to have him in it, was built to have him in it; so the moment he disappears catches him rather by surprise.
Medieval legend spoke of one man who was desperate to find building materials for his house, so he stolecobblestones from the road surface. The remaining hole filled with water and a horseman who later walked through the 'puddle' found himself drowning.[citation needed] A similar legend, of a young boy drowning in a puddle that formed in apothole in a major street in the early years ofSeattle,Washington, is told as part of theSeattle Underground Tour.
