Surface tension is the property of a liquid because of which, the molecules of the liquid always tries to acquire minimum surface area. Because of this reason only, free water drops are spherical in shape.The surface of a liquid behaves like a stretched elastic membrane because of the surface tension. We can see small creatures like ants are able to walk on the surface of water because of that only.
The molecules on the surface experience extra force towards the other molecules and this gives minimum surface area to the liquid. It is also because of cohesive and adhesive molecular force of attraction among the molecules of the liquid. This force are always attractive. They do have a limited range and one molecule can attract the neighboring once up to certain distance called molecular range.
Because of surface tension, there is capillary rise or fall of the liquid. It is the rise or fall of the level in a thin open pipe when immersed in the liquid. This also depend on angle of contact and that in tern depends on the force of attraction among the molecules.
Surface tension also causes the excess pressure inside the liquid and all these concepts are discussed in detail in the following blog lessons.
Related Posts
Mechanical Properties of Matter
Heat and Thermodynamics
Waves and Oscillations
Ray Optics
Wave Optics
Semi Conductor Devices
Mechanical Property of Solids Elasticity Complete Lesson
Waves and Oscillations
Ray Optics
Wave Optics
Semi Conductor Devices
No comments:
Post a Comment