Meniscus

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Meniscus

For other uses, see: meniscus (anatomy)
Meniscus (anatomy)

In anatomy, a meniscus is a crescent-shaped fibrocartilage structure present in the knee, acromioclavicular joint, sternoclavicular joint, and temporomandibular joints that, in contrast to articular disks, only partly divides a joint cavity....
and lens (optics)
Lens (optics)

A lens is an optics device with perfect or approximate axial symmetry which transmittance and refraction light, converging or diverging the beam....
.

Meniscus, plural: menisci, from the Greek

Greek language

Greek is an Indo-European languages native to the southern Balkan peninsula, the language of the Greek people. It forms an independent branch within Indo-European....
for "crescent", is a curve in the surface of a molecular substance and is produced in response to the surface of the container or another object.

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Meniscus, plural: menisci, from the Greek

Greek language

Convex set

In Euclidean space, an object is convex if for every pair of points within the object, every point on the straight line segment that joins them is also within the object....
. A convex meniscus occurs when the molecules have a stronger attraction to each other than to the container. This may be seen between mercury

Mercury (element)

Mercury , also called quicksilver or hydrargyrum , is a chemical element with the symbol Hg and atomic number 80. A heavy, silvery d-block metal, mercury is one of six elements that are liquid at or near room temperature and pressure....
and glass

Glass

Glass generally refers to a Hardness, brittle, transparency amorphous solid, such as that used for windows, many Glass Bottles, or eyewear, including, but not limited to, soda-lime glass, borosilicate glass, acrylic glass, sugar glass, Muscovite , or aluminium oxynitride....
in barometers. Conversely, a concave meniscus occurs when the molecules of the liquid attract those of the container. This can be seen between water

Water

Water is a common chemical substance that is essential for the survival of all known forms of life. In typical usage, water refers only to its liquid form or States of matter, but the substance also has a solid state, ice, and a gaseous state, water vapor or steam....
and glass

Glass

Capillary action

Capillary action, capillarity, capillary motion, or wicking refers to two phenomena:# The movement of liquids in thin tubes...
acts on concave menisci to pull the liquid up, and on convex menisci to pull the liquid down. This phenomenon is important in transpirational pull

Transpirational pull

Transpirational pull is the main phenomenon driving the flow of water in the xylem tissues of large plants....
in plant

Plant

Plants are Life organisms belonging to the Kingdom Plantae. They include familiar organisms such as trees, herbs, bushes, grasses, vines, ferns, mosses, and green algae....
s. Honey, water, milk etc. have a lower meniscus. When a tube of a narrow bore, often called a capillary tube, is dipped into a liquid and the liquid “wets” the tube (with zero contact angle), the liquid surface inside the tube forms a concave meniscus, which is a virtually spherical surface having the same radius, r, as the inside of the tube. The tube experiences a downward force of magnitude 2prds. Mercury etc. have an upper convex meniscus.

When reading a scale on the side of a container filled with liquid, the meniscus must be taken into account in order to obtain a precise measurement. Manufacturers take the meniscus into account and calibrate their measurement marks relative to the resulting meniscus. The measurement is taken with the meniscus at eye level to eliminate parallax error, and at the central point of the curve of the meniscus, i.e. the top of the meniscus, in the unusual case of a liquid like mercury, or more usually, the bottom of the meniscus in water and most other liquids.

Meniscus

See also