  The impact and splash of liquid drops on solid substrates are ubiquitous in
many important fields. However, previous studies have mainly focused on
spherical drops while the non-spherical situations, such as raindrops, charged
drops, oscillating drops, and drops affected by electromagnetic field, remain
largely unexplored. Using ferrofluid, we realize various drop shapes and
illustrate the fundamental role of shape in impact and splash. Experiments show
that different drop shapes produce large variations in spreading dynamics,
splash onset, and splash amount. However, underlying all these variations we
discover universal mechanisms across various drop shapes: the impact dynamics
is governed by the superellipse model, the splash onset is triggered by the
Kelvin-Helmholtz instability, and the amount of splash is determined by the
energy dissipation before liquid taking off. Our study generalizes the drop
impact research beyond the spherical geometry, and reveals the potential of
using drop shape to control impact and splash.
