SPLATS about surface tension

SPLATS about surface tension

For an explanation, see the main splats page

The principles of surface tension

Surface tension gives rise to capillary action and this explains why water will soak into a rock, and many other effects, including 'wetting'.
Surface tension affects many animals, but it usually has a greater effect on small animals which encounter greater pro rata forces on their smaller mass.
Surface tension effects give rise to the meniscus at a liquid boundary, the curve being shaped by the relative attractions of the molecules for each other.
Two-dimensional bubble films will always contract and take up a shape to minimize their surface areas in the same way that a three-dimensional bubble does.
The pressure inside the bubble is greater than the pressure outside, due to the compressive effects of surface tension in the bubble on the air inside.
Bubbles take the shape which minimizes their surface area: when they are unconstrained, this will normally be a sphere, but other shapes are possible.

This file is http://members.ozemail.com.au/~macinnis/scifun/, first created on February 18, 2009. Last recorded revision (well I get lazy and forget sometimes!) was on February 18, 2009.

©The author of this work is Peter Macinnis, who asserts his sole right to the product as it is packaged here, recognising that many of the ideas are common. You are free to use this as a model to do your own version. Copies of this whole file or site may be made and stored or printed for personal or educational use. You can contact me at macinnis@ozemail.com.au, but only if you add my first name to the front of that email address -- this is a low-tech way of making it harder to harvest the e-mail address I actually read.

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