What would a droplet of water be like if I were the size of an ant?

Factual Questions
1

If I were shrunk down to a few millimeters in height and I encountered a droplet of water, what would it be like? What would be my experience of the water’s viscosity and surface tension at that scale?

It would be a sphere the size of a basketball to me, obviously, but could I pick it up? Put my hand inside it? Drink from it? Would it be like a blob of gelatin, or more like a water balloon? Or what?

And what is surface tension, anyway, and why does it not scale? Is there any material that would be comparable at normal human scales to what this water droplet is like for the ant?

2

Surface tension simply results from the fact that the water molecules are attracted to each other (which is why the water stays liquid in the first place). These intermolecular forces, which are enhanced by a phenomena known as “hydrogen bonding” are relatively strong, which (incidentally) is why water (H[sub]2[/sub]O) (the stable compound formed from oxygen and hydrogen) is liquid at room temperature, whereas the compounds formed between comparably-sized elements and hydrogen such as ammonia (NH[sub]3[/sub]) and methane (CH[sub]4[/sub]) are gases.

Anyway, because the water molecules are attracted to each other, there is a discontinuity at the phase boundary. At the surface of the water, all of the water molecules are pulling together, resulting in a net inward force at the phase boundary. (This force exists around the whole surface area of the water, so overall, it cancels out.) This force is surface tension.

The reason that it doesn’t scale is because the intermolecular forces between the water molecules has a characteristic, more or less fixed strength. At smaller scales, this strength is more evident.

3

It would be freaking scary if it were to be falling towards you!

4

Here is a photo of an insect with a drop of water on its back. It doesn’t answer all your questions but may give you some idea of surface tension at that scale.

5

This is an interesting article titled The Biology of B-Movie Monsters. It covers your question among others.

Here is what it says about The Incredible Shrinking Man:

6

Here is a fascinating if oblique discussion somewhat near this topic:
http://jilawww.colorado.edu/perkinsgroup/Purcell_life_at_low_reynolds_number.pdf

It is interesting to consider. At very small sizes, gravity and inertia would become less noticeable and stickiness and viscosity would become more noticeable. I’d guess that ants do not need to keep track of which way is down as they move around, or at most only do so as part of their navigation, like they might track the sun. The chemical affinity of surfaces would be very important; that is, it would sometimes be a matter of life and death whether you were oily or not.

7

Honey I Shrunk the Kids might also be a good primer on the subject too.