On the experimental values of the water surface tension used in some textbooks

Abstract

A thermodynamic study of one component liquid-vapor planar interfaces and the temperature dependence of some relevant thermodynamic quantities is presented. A critical review of data for the surface tension of water found in some textbooks is given. More accurate measurements show a qualitative change in the temperature dependence of the surface tension, from the almost linear dependence of the old data to nonlinear behavior and the occurrence of an inflection point in the more accurate, more recent data. © 2002 American Association of Physics Teachers