In: Mechanical Engineering
A small quantity of n-octane is placed in a wide test tube at 20 degrees C and two capillaries are inserted vertically and immersed to the same depth. The radii of the capillaries are unknown but are of the order of 0.1 and 0.01 mm. Air is blown through each capillary in turn and the pressure necessary to just produce a slow stream of bubbles is recorded on a manometer filled with water. Show that the surface tension of each test liquid may be expressed as K(h1 – h2) where h1 and h2 are the two manometer readings and K is a constant for the apparatus.