SURFACE TENSION

DEFINITION
CAUSES
PHYSICAL UNITS
APPLICATIONS
SURFACE TENSION
DEFINITION:
Surface tension may be defined as the
tendency of fluid surfaces to shrink
into minimum surface area possible.
 CAUSES:
Consider a molecule in the interior of liquid. It is being
attracted by a neighbouring molecules equally in all
directions and hence the resultant force on it is zero. Now
consider another molecule at the surface. Here the
molecule is not equally attracted in all the directions. It is
experiencing a net downward force or pull because of
greater attraction for the molecules in the liquid. This is
the case with all molecules at the surface.
As a result of this inward pull all the
molecules at the surface tends to contract.
Hence the liquid surface behaves as a
stretched membrane. This is why the liquid
surfaces are characterized by their
tendency to become as small as possible.
This force in the surface of liquid is called as
SURFACE TENSION.
 PHYSICAL UNITS:

Surface tension, represented by the

symbol γ (alternatively σ or T), is
measured in force per unit length. Its SI
unit is newton per meter but the cgs unit
of dyne per centimeter is also used.
 APPLICATIONS:
There are many applications of surface tension,
Some are given below:

1. Deciding the structure of BENZENE

2. Deciding the structure of QUINONE
3. Deciding the structure of PARALDEHYDE
4. Deciding the nature of BOND
 MEASUREMENTS OF
SURFACE TENSION:
Some of the methods which are commonly employed to
measure the surface tension of a liquid.

1. The capillary rise method

2. The drop formation method
3. The torsion balance method
4. The maximum bubble pressure method
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