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Surface tension is an important factor in the phenomenon of capillarity. Surface tension has the dimension of force per unit length, or of energy per unit area. [4] The two are equivalent, but when referring to energy per unit of area, it is common to use the term surface energy, which is a more general term in the sense that it applies also to ...
Surface tension is one of the areas of interest in biomimetics research. Surface tension forces will only begin to dominate gravitational forces below length scales on the order of the fluid's capillary length, which for water is about 2 millimeters. Because of this scaling, biomimetic devices that utilize surface tension will generally be very ...
Connectivity of ocean surface ecosystems may be facilitated by the life history of species living there. One hypothesis is that species have pelagic stages to "escape" surface sink regions and repopulate surface source regions, where one life cycle stage drifts on surface currents in one direction, and a pelagic stage either remains ...
Water potential is the potential energy of water per unit volume relative to pure water in reference conditions. Water potential quantifies the tendency of water to move from one area to another due to osmosis, gravity, mechanical pressure and matrix effects such as capillary action (which is caused by surface tension).
Surface tension (denoted by σ) describes the energy required to change the shape of a fluid when it comes into contact with another fluid in which it is not miscible (e.g., blood and air). This plays a big role in the formation of spherical blood droplets as they fall, as well as the way they react when they hit a surface. [ 21 ]
As striders increase in size, their legs become proportionately longer, with Gigantometra gigas having a length of over 20 cm requiring a surface tension force of about 40 millinewtons. Water striders generate thrust by shedding vortices in the water: a series of U-shaped vortex filaments is created during the power stroke.
Within the stratosphere is the ozone layer, a component that partially shields the surface from ultraviolet light and thus is important for life on Earth. The Kármán line , defined as 100 km (62 mi) above Earth's surface, is a working definition for the boundary between the atmosphere and outer space .
The surface energy of a liquid may be measured by stretching a liquid membrane (which increases the surface area and hence the surface energy). In that case, in order to increase the surface area of a mass of liquid by an amount, δA, a quantity of work, γ δA, is needed (where γ is the surface energy density of the liquid).