Surface tension is interfacial energy per unit area and produces a normal-stress jump proportional to mean curvature.
The Young–Laplace equation gives the pressure jump across an interface as , with the sign set by the chosen normal and curvature convention.
The Gibbs--Thomson relation shifts the equilibrium chemical potential or composition at a curved interface by an amount proportional to its mean curvature. Small droplets therefore have a larger equilibrium solubility than flat interfaces.
A dynamic meniscus is a curved transition region joining a moving thin film to a bulk fluid reservoir.
A capillary wave is a free-surface wave for which surface tension supplies an essential restoring stress.
For a conserved scalar order parameter, a sinusoidal interface perturbation of wavenumber creates a harmonic chemical-potential field extending a distance into each phase. Surface tension then produces a relaxation rate proportional to .
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Surface tension is a physical property of liquids that arises from the cohesive forces between liquid molecules. It is defined as the energy required to increase the surface area of the liquid by a unit area. At the molecular level, surface tension occurs because molecules at the surface of a liquid experience a net inward force: they are attracted more strongly to the molecules beside and below them than to the air above. This results in a "skin-like" effect on the surface of the liquid.