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Capillary rise exceeding tube height

Short answer

No, the water does not overflow. If the tube is shorter than the calculated capillary rise, the meniscus flattens, increasing the contact angle so that the reduced vertical pull of surface tension balances the shorter column’s weight. The water rises only to the top.

Suppose the water rise predicted by the capillarity formula exceeds the height of the capillary tube. Does the water overflow? Explain with mathematical expression.

No, the water does not overflow. If the tube is shorter than the calculated rise, the meniscus simply becomes less curved, so that the pull of surface tension is still balanced by the weight of the (shorter) column.

For a tube of radius rr with contact angle θ\theta, equating the vertical surface-tension pull to the weight of the column gives

2πrσcos⁡θ=ρg πr2h⇒h=2σcos⁡θρgr2\pi r\sigma\cos\theta=\rho g\,\pi r^{2}h\quad\Rightarrow\quad h=\frac{2\sigma\cos\theta}{\rho g r}

If the tube height is ht<hh_t<h, the water rises to the top and the meniscus at the rim adjusts to a new apparent angle θ′\theta' (larger than θ\theta) such that

cos⁡θ′=ρgr ht2σ<cos⁡θ\cos\theta'=\frac{\rho g r\,h_t}{2\sigma}<\cos\theta

Equivalently, the radius of curvature of the meniscus becomes R′=r/cos⁡θ′R'=r/\cos\theta', which is larger than before (a flatter meniscus), so the vertical pull 2πrσcos⁡θ′2\pi r\sigma\cos\theta' just equals the weight of the shorter column. The column height stays hth_t and the water stays in the tube. However short the tube, the meniscus only flattens further (θ′→90∘\theta'\to90^\circ as ht→0h_t\to0); surface tension at the rim always holds the water, so it never flows over.

✓ Answer checked by Claude Opus 5.5 (high effort)

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