Surface stress was first defined by Josiah Willard Gibbs as the amount of reversible work per unit area needed to elastically stretch a pre-existing surface. A similar term called “surface free energy”, which represents the excess free energy per unit area needed to create a new surface, is easily confused with “surface stress”. Although surface stress and surface free energy of liquid-gas or liquid-liquid interface are the same, they are very different in solid–gas or solid–solid interface, which will be discussed in details later. Since both terms represent a force per unit length, they have been referred to as “surface tension”, which contributes further to the confusion in the literature.
Read more about Surface Stress: Thermodynamics of Surface Stress, Physical Origins of Surface Stress, See Also
Famous quotes containing the words surface and/or stress:
“A lifeless planet. And yet, yet still serving a useful purpose, I hope. Yes, a sun. Warming the surface of some other world. Giving light to those who may need it.”
—Franklin Coen, and Joseph Newman. Exeter (Jeff Morrow)
“A society which is clamoring for choice, which is filled with many articulate groups, each urging its own brand of salvation, its own variety of economic philosophy, will give each new generation no peace until all have chosen or gone under, unable to bear the conditions of choice. The stress is in our civilization.”
—Margaret Mead (1901–1978)