[uoaei]

I think the definition of ballistic means that gravity is the dominant force governing its path through space. So if it is "heavily influenced" by airflow it is by definition not ballistic.

Then again, it's not aerosolized as it didn't diffuse homogenously into the space. It's somewhere in between.

[MereInterest]

Eh, different fields can have different definitions for the same word, and that's okay. If I tell a chemist that carbon is a metal, I would get a funny look. If I tell an astrophysicist that carbon is a metal, it is perfectly reasonable. Within the field of astronomy, metals are any element other than hydrogen and helium. There may be a similar difference in definitions here

[tricolon]

For those who are curious, you can read more here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metallicity

[cameldrv]

You've really got three regimes. Really big things are ballistic in your sense that the dominant force is gravity. Smaller things are also sensitive to bulk air movement. Really small things aren't affected much by gravity, and brownian motion is more important.

When these guys are saying "ballistic", they mean that the droplet is big enough that gravity is important, and that it's going to hit the ground in a reasonable amount of time and not hang around in the air until convection/diffusion spread it evenly throughout the room.