ELI5- What’s Surface Tension?
In: Chemistry
Liquids are made up of tiny things called molecules. To be called a liquid, a big lump of molecules needs to meet two requirements: sticking together, and being able to slide around past each other.
Surface tension is these molecules sticking together at the surface of a pool of liquid, and often causes the pool to round off its corners, forming tiny bulges and overhangs that seem to defy gravity.
Think of it like a net picking up a bundle of fish from the water. The fish are heavy and flop about, sliding past each other. If the net wasn’t there, the fish would fall out and eventually settle into a pretty much flat pile. But because of the net, the fish are held in a bugling, writhing shape.
At the surface of a liquid, the stickiness of its molecules acts like a net, holding the molecules mostly inside the main body of liquid.
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