Name: surface tension in drops and bubbles
Uploaded: 2023-05-16T08:18:41.000Z
Duration: 1 min 13 s
Channel: JoVE

A liquid drop can be considered spherical, ignoring the effect of gravity. The two hemispheres of the drop attract each other due to surface tension. In addition, the forces due to the pressure of the liquid inside and air outside act on the hemispheres.
At equilibrium, the magnitude of forces inside and outside balance each other. Rewriting this expression indicates an excess pressure inside the liquid drop.
For drops of different liquids with the same radius, the excess pressure is greater for the liquid with higher surface tension. However, if the radius decreases, the excess pressure increases.
The scenario remains unchanged in the case of air bubbles inside a liquid, where the pressure inside the bubbles is greater than the pressure in the liquid.
In the case of a soap bubble, the pressure enclosed in the thickness of the bubble is greater than the air pressure outside and less than the air pressure inside the surface. 
Adding these expressions gives the excess pressure inside a soap bubble.

excess pressure inside a drop and a bubble

The shape of a small drop of liquid can be considered spherical, neglecting the effect of gravity. This drop can further be considered as two equal hemispherical drops put together due to surface tension. The forces acting on the spherical drop are due to the pressure of the liquid inside the drop, the pressure due to air outside the drop, and the force due to the surface tension acting on the two hemispherical drops.
<img alt="Static equilibrium formula, Fin=Fy+Fout, illustrating force balance equation." src="/files/ftp_upload/14715/14715_Equation_1v2.svg" style="text-align: center; height:20px;" data-altupdatedat="1761830439000" data-alt="Equation1" />
where &#947; corresponds to the surface tension. Recalling that the force per unit length is the surface tension gives the force acting on the diameter. The difference between the pressure inside and outside the drop for its given surface area gives the net pressure forces acting on the drop. At equilibrium, the forces inside and outside balance each other, indicating that pressure inside the liquid surface is greater than the external pressure.
<img alt="Young-Laplace equation for pressure difference; formula for surface tension physics concept" src="/files/ftp_upload/14715/14715_Equation_2v2.svg" style="text-align: center; height: 40px;" data-altupdatedat="1761830439000" data-alt="Equation2" />
In the case of an air bubble inside a liquid, this condition remains unchanged, and the pressure inside the air bubble is greater than the pressure in the surrounding liquid. The pressure difference across this air-liquid interface is proportional to curvature of the interface, which in turn determines the size of the bubble.
A cross-sectional view of a soap bubble shows two surfaces: one in contact with the air inside the bubble and the other in contact with the air outside the bubble. The pressure within the bubble is greater than the air pressure outside the surface. Also, the pressure within the bubble is lower than the air pressure inside the surface by the same quantity. Solving these two conditions gives the Young-Laplace relation for the soap bubble.
<img alt="Young-Laplace equation: &#916;p = 4&#947;/R, describing capillary pressure in fluid dynamics." src="/files/ftp_upload/14715/14715_Equation_3v2.svg" style="text-align: center; height: 40px;" data-altupdatedat="1761830439000" data-alt="Equation3" />

Excess Pressure Inside a Drop and a Bubble

The shape of a small drop of liquid can be considered spherical, neglecting the effect of gravity. This drop can further be considered as two equal ...

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excess-pressure-inside-a-drop-and-a-bubble

Education

JoVE Core

Physics

Unit 1

Fluid Mechanics

KEY TERMS AND CONCEPTS

surface tension in drops and bubbles

Surface tension sets the pressure difference in small drops and bubbles. For a tiny liquid drop, gravity can be neglected, so the drop is treated as spherical. It can also be viewed as two equal hemispherical drops joined together by surface tension.

The forces on the drop come from three sources. The liquid inside pushes outward, the air outside pushes inward, and surface tension acts along the diameter between the two hemispheres. Since surface tension is force per unit length, it creates a force that must balance the pressure forces on the drop’s surface area.

At equilibrium, the inward and outward forces balance. This balance shows that the pressure inside the liquid surface is greater than the external pressure. The same idea applies to an air bubble inside a liquid, where the pressure inside the bubble is greater than the pressure in the surrounding liquid.

The pressure difference across the air-liquid interface depends on the curvature of the interface. That curvature also affects the size of the bubble. A soap bubble has two surfaces, one touching the air inside and one touching the air outside. The pressure inside the bubble is greater than the air pressure outside the outer surface, and it is lower than the air pressure inside the inner surface by the same amount. Solving these two conditions gives the Young-Laplace relation for a soap bubble.

Surface Tension in Drops and Bubbles

characteristics of fluids

Fluid Behavior Under Force

Fluid behavior under force differs from the behavior of solids. When a force acts parallel to the top surface of a solid, the solid resists it because of internal friction between its layers. This is called shearing resistance. If the force is removed, the shearing forces help the solid return to its original shape. Other deformation forces can also change the shape of a solid for a short time, as long as the force stays below a threshold magnitude. Solids usually keep their shape, which makes...

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density

Density, Floating, and Specific Gravity

Density helps explain why objects sink or float in a fluid. It is also useful for identifying a substance and for learning about its phase and substructure. The SI unit of density is kg/m3, and the cgs unit is g/cm3. Liquids and solids usually have densities that are roughly comparable. That matches the fact that their atoms are in close contact. Gases have much lower densities than liquids and solids because their atoms are separated by large amounts of empty space. Density does not always...

pressure of fluids

Fluid Pressure in Everyday Life

Fluid pressure appears in many everyday situations, including blood pressure and weather systems. The same force can have a very different effect depending on the area it acts on. A force spread over 1 mm² creates 100 times more pressure than the same force spread over 1 cm². That is why a sharp needle can pierce skin with a small force, while the same force from a finger usually does not. Pressure is especially important when studying fluids. A fluid does not offer much resistance to a force...

variation of atmospheric pressure

Atmospheric Pressure and Altitude

Atmospheric pressure and altitude are closely linked. As height increases, atmospheric pressure decreases. This happens because the gravitational force per unit area becomes smaller as we move away from Earth’s surface. To describe this change, the atmosphere is treated with a constant air temperature at a given altitude. The ideal gas law of thermodynamics is also used as a good approximation for the air. Let p(y) be the atmospheric pressure at height y. The density ρ at y, the temperature T...

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pascal's law

Pascal’s Principle in Static Fluids

Pascal’s principle explains how pressure changes move through a fluid that is not flowing. A fluid at rest is in static equilibrium. If the fluid is water, it is in hydrostatic equilibrium. In this state, the net force on any part of the fluid must be zero, or the fluid will begin to flow. Blaise Pascal described this idea in 1653 in Treatise on the Equilibrium of Liquids. He showed that when pressure changes in an enclosed fluid, that change is transmitted without loss through the fluid and...

application of pascal's law

Hydraulic Force Transfer with Pascal's Law

Hydraulic force transfer uses Pascal's law to move pressure through an enclosed fluid. Pascal showed experimentally that a change in pressure applied to a confined fluid is transmitted undiminished throughout the fluid and to the walls of its container. That idea is the basis of hydraulics, a major part of modern mechanical technology. Hydraulic systems appear in automotive brakes, hydraulic jacks, and many other machines. A simple hydraulic system uses two pistons at the same height. Because...

pressure gauges

Gauge vs Absolute Pressure

Pressure gauges often show pressure relative to atmospheric pressure. Many gauges, including those on scuba tanks, are set to read zero at atmospheric pressure. That reading is called gauge pressure. When the pressure inside the tank is higher than atmospheric pressure, the gauge shows a positive value. Some gauges can also measure negative pressure. This is useful in a vacuum chamber, which is a rigid chamber where some air has been pumped out. Because the pressure inside the chamber is below...

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archimedes' principle

Buoyant Force from Fluid Pressure

Archimedes' principle explains buoyant force in a fluid. An upward buoyant force acts on an object that is partially or fully immersed in a fluid. This force is equal to the weight of the fluid displaced by the object. To see why an object floats, imagine removing a submerged object from the fluid. The space it occupied would be filled by fluid with weight w_fl. That weight is supported by the surrounding fluid, so the buoyant force must match the weight of the displaced fluid. The principle...

density and archimedes' principle

How Buoyancy Depends on Density

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accelerating fluids

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surface tension and surface energy

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Surface tension and surface energy explain why liquids behave the way they do at their surface. A paint brush moves freely in water, but its bristles stick together after it is taken out. That change is caused by surface tension. Inside a liquid, bulk molecules feel attractive forces from nearby molecules in all directions. At the surface, molecules feel a net downward pull from the molecules below them. Because of this imbalance, the liquid surface acts like a stretched membrane and tries to...

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Surface tension sets the pressure difference in small drops and bubbles. For a tiny liquid drop, gravity can be neglected, so the drop is treated as spherical. It can also be viewed as two equal hemispherical drops joined together by surface tension. The forces on the drop come from three sources. The liquid inside pushes outward, the air outside pushes inward, and surface tension acts along the diameter between the two hemispheres. Since surface tension is force per unit length, it creates a...

buoyancy

Buoyant Force in Sinking and Floating

Buoyant force explains why objects float, sink, or stay suspended in a fluid. A fluid can be a liquid or a gas, and every object placed in it experiences this upward force. A metal ball sinks, while a rubber ball floats. A submarine also changes its buoyancy to move up or down. The force comes from pressure changes in the fluid. Fluid pressure increases with depth because the weight of the fluid above also increases. That means the bottom of an object feels more pressure than the top. This...

contact angle

Wetting and Surface Curvature

Wetting and surface curvature describe how a liquid behaves where it meets a solid. When a solid is dipped into a liquid, the liquid surface can bend near the contact line. In some cases, the liquid rises along the solid. In others, the surface becomes convex or depressed near the solid. This behavior comes from cohesive and adhesive forces. Adhesive force is the attraction between molecules of different materials, such as a solid and a liquid. Cohesive force is the attraction between...

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rise of liquid in a capillary tube

Capillary Action in Thin Tubes

Capillary action explains why liquid can rise or fall in a very thin tube compared with the liquid around it. A capillary is a narrow cylindrical tube, and the effect becomes noticeable when it is dipped into a liquid. The movement happens because two forces act in opposite directions. Cohesive forces make liquid molecules stick to each other, so the liquid tends to hold together and form a rounded shape. Adhesive forces pull the liquid toward the walls of the container. In a narrow glass...

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laminar and turbulent flow

Fluid Motion Patterns in Air and Water

Fluid dynamics studies fluids in motion. Scientists often use velocity vectors to show fluid motion in places like meteorology. For example, wind in the atmosphere can be mapped with vectors that show the speed and direction of the wind at each point. Another way to show fluid motion is with a streamline. A streamline shows the path of a small volume of fluid as it flows. When the flow changes with time, the streamlines do not match the flow lines. The fluid velocity is always tangential to...

equation of continuity

Fluid Flow in Narrowing Pipes

Fluid flow in a pipe is described by flow rate and average speed. Flow rate, or volume flow rate, is the amount of fluid that passes a point through an area in a given time. It depends on both how fast the fluid moves and the size and shape of the conduit. For a river or pipe, a greater speed usually means a greater flow rate. A larger cross-sectional area also increases flow rate. That is why the same fluid can move differently through conduits of different sizes. The relationship becomes...

bernoulli's equation

Fluid Pressure and Speed in Motion

Bernoulli's equation connects fluid pressure with fluid speed. It helps explain why moving fluids can create pressure changes in everyday situations. One example is when two trains pass each other quickly and seem to pull inward. The same effect can happen when two cars pass each other at high speed. As the air between the trains or cars speeds up, its pressure drops. The air on the outside stays at atmospheric pressure. That pressure difference creates a net inward force on the vehicles.

bernoulli's principle

Fluid Pressure and Speed Changes

Bernoulli's equation links fluid pressure and fluid speed in a static, incompressible fluid. For horizontal flow, where gravitational energy density stays constant, the equation is especially useful. In that setting, the result is known as Bernoulli's principle. Bernoulli's principle says that fluid pressure drops when speed increases, and pressure rises when speed decreases. This pressure-speed relationship helps explain how moving fluids behave in simple flow situations. It also provides a...

bernoulli's principle: applications

Bernoulli's Principle in Fluid Devices

Bernoulli's principle helps explain how many fluid devices work when the fluid moves at a constant height. It is useful for devices that use fast flow to create low pressure and for devices that measure fluid speed. Some devices use this pressure change to pull one fluid into another. These are called entrainment devices. A Bunsen burner uses an adjustable gas nozzle to entrain air for proper combustion. An atomizer uses a squeeze bulb to make a jet of air that pulls perfume drops into the...

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energy conservation and bernoulli's equation

energy-conservation-and-bernoulli-s-equation

Bernoulli’s Equation in Streamlined Flow

Bernoulli’s equation describes energy in a moving fluid. It comes from the conservation of energy principle, or the work-energy theorem, applied to an incompressible, inviscid fluid in laminar, steady, irrotational flow. The equation says that pressure energy, potential energy, and kinetic energy per unit volume stay constant along a streamline. Each term has the units of energy per unit volume. The kinetic energy per unit volume is called kinetic energy density, and the potential energy per...

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viscosity

Viscosity and How Fluids Flow

Viscosity describes how easily a fluid flows. Water moves quickly, while honey and maple syrup flow slowly and stick to a surface. That difference comes from fluid friction between liquid layers and between a fluid and the material around it. In this example, water has a lower viscosity than honey and maple syrup. Viscosity is measured in newton-second per meter squared (N·s/m2) or pascal-second (Pa·s). It also changes with temperature and can differ from one fluid to another by several orders...

poiseuille's law and reynolds number

Fluid Resistance, Viscosity, and Flow Regime

Fluid resistance, viscosity, and flow regime shape how liquid moves through a horizontal tube. Fluid flows from high pressure to low pressure. The flow rate, Q, is the ratio of the pressure difference to the resistance in the tube. A larger pressure difference gives a higher flow rate. Poiseuille's law describes laminar flow of an incompressible fluid in a tube. In this relation, the factors that affect flow rate except pressure are grouped into resistance. Resistance depends on the tube size...

stokes' law

Terminal Velocity in a Viscous Fluid

Viscous forces act like friction in a liquid. They resist the relative motion of molecules and pull back on a solid body moving through the fluid. The size of this force depends on the body’s shape and size, its speed, and the liquid’s viscosity, density, and temperature. For a spherical solid object, the force in a fluid is described by Stokes’ law. This law applies only at low Reynolds number, when the flow is laminar and not turbulent. Experiments show that the force is proportional to the...

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key terms and concepts

Learn how surface tension creates pressure differences in small liquid drops, air bubbles, and soap bubbles, and how curvature leads to the Young-Laplace relation.

Surface Tension in Drops and Bubbles | JoVE K12

physics

JoVE Core Physics introduces the theory and application of fundamental physics topics, including kinematics, dynamics, fluid mechanics, statics, waves, and acoustics, with concise and easy-to-understand animated videos. Additionally, the scientist-in-action videos demonstrate the application of related concepts in classical and original research experiments performed in today's laboratories worldwide.

Surface Tension in Drops and Bubbles

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