Surface Tension

Surface tension is the force acting on the surface of liquid per unit length and because of this property the liquid drops always will acquire minimum surface area .This is the reason because of which small water drops are spherical.When the drop is big in size gravitational force on it starts dominating and they acquire elliptical shape .

An extra energy is associated with surface of liquids, the creation of more surface (spreading of surface) keeping other things like volume fixed requires additional energy.

Let us assume that we move the bar by a small distance d as shown. Since the area of the surface increases, the system now has more energy, this means that some work has been done against an internal force.

Let this internal force be F, the work done by the applied force is F.d = Fd. From conservation of energy, this is stored as additional energy in the film. If the surface energy of the film is S per unit area, the extra area is 2dl. A film has two sides and the liquid in between, so there are two surfaces and the extra energy is

S (2dl) = Fd and
S=Fd/2dl = F/2l

The quantity S is the magnitude of surface tension. It is equal to the surface energy perunit area of the liquid interface and is also equal to the force per unit length exerted by the fluid on the movable bar.

Surface tension is a force per unit length (or surface energy per unit area) acting in the plane of the interface between the plane of the liquid and any other substance; it also is the extra energy that the molecules at the interface have as compared to molecules in the interior.

At any point on the interface besides the boundary, we can draw a line and imagine equal and opposite surface tension forces S per unit length of the line acting perpendicular to the line, in the plane of the interface. The line is in equilibrium.Let us imagine a line of atoms or molecules at the surface. The atoms to the left pull the line towards them; those to the right pull it towards them! This line of atoms is in equilibrium under tension. If the line really marks the end of the interface, as in figure a and b there is only the force S per unit length acting inwards.

Other properties of Fluids :

Surface energy and tension
Viscosity
Dynamic lift
Venturi meter
Torricelli's theorem
Blood flow and heart attack
Stream line flow
What is pressure ?
Pressure variation with depth
Pascal's Law


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