shiny air bubble
11.8 Cohesion and Adhesion in Liquids: Surface Tension and Capillary Action Cohesion and Adhesion in Liquids Children blow soap bubbles and play in the spray of a sprinkler on a hot summer day. See Figure 11.27. An underwater spider keeps his air supply in a shiny bubble he carries wrapped around him. A technician draws blood into a small-diameter tube just by touching it to a drop on a pricked finger. A premature infant struggles to inflate her lungs. What is the common thread? All these activities are dominated by the attractive forces between atoms and molecules in liquidsboth within a liquid and between the liquid and its surroundings. Attractive forces between molecules of the same type are called cohesive forces. Liquids can, for example, be held in open containers because cohesive forces hold the molecules together. Attractive forces between molecules of different types are called adhesive forces. Such forces cause liquid drops to cling to window panes, for example. In this section we examine effects directly attributable to cohesive and adhesive forces in liquids.