Streams of cylindrical water (Q1777530)

In this introductory article the author discusses surfaces which are stationary for a cylindrical surface energy under a volume constraint. This surface energy makes horizontal and vertical directions preferable so that the cheapest way to enclose a given volume is a cylindrical can. The author describes cylindrical analogues of the classical Delaunay undoloids consisting of a chain of similar cylinders of alternating radii \(R\), \(r\) and heights \(H\), \(h\) where \(H/R= h/r= 2/(R- r)\). Some related results from the literature are briefly mentioned.