In the present work, it is suggested the construction of a balance using low-cost materials in order to determine surface tension of liquids. The reliability of the measurements was confirmed by comparing these results with those reported in the literature using capillary rise method for simple liquids. In the proposed method, the systematic errors from the obtained results obtained with this device are reduced considerably. The principle of the device’s operation consists of measuring the force required to remove/detach a glass slide partially immersed in a liquid. The values of surface tension are calculated based on concepts of moment of a force (torque) and considering intermolecular interactions between glass and liquid surface.
surface tension; intermolecular forces
