Percolation thresholds

Imagine you have a big jar filled with sand and you want to pour water into it to make a puddle. You start pouring the water slowly and keep pouring until the sand grains start to stick together and you can see the water moving through the sand. That's when you have reached the percolation threshold.

Percolation threshold is a fancy term used to describe the point at which a material (like sand) becomes porous enough to allow other substances (like water) to flow through it. In scientific terms, it is the critical concentration of a substance at which a material undergoes a phase transition from impermeable to permeable.

The percolation threshold varies depending on the material and its porosity. For example, some materials may have a low percolation threshold, meaning that they become permeable with a small concentration of substance, while others may have a high percolation threshold, requiring a larger concentration to become permeable.

Understanding the percolation threshold is important in many fields, such as geology, where it can help us understand how water moves through rocks and soil, or in materials science, where it can help us design more efficient filters or membranes.

In summary, the percolation threshold is the point at which a material becomes porous enough to allow substances to flow through it, and it varies depending on the material and its porosity.