This book presents a set of essays on interfacial instability, drawing at-
attention to the surface tension acting at an interface between two phases.
The stability of a liquid jet is the model problem. In this problem, surface
tension works on the pressures of the fluids, and thence on their velocities.
In other problems, it works on gradients of temperature and concentra-
concentration. It affects the freezing point in solidification, it affects the solubility in
precipitation and it affects the rate of electron transfer in electrodeposition.
The essays are nine in number and there are three appendices. A set of
derivations is collected at the end of many of the essays to serve as a basis
for discussion. These are called discussion notes to set them apart from
endnotes. The endnotes ordinarily explain background information which
the reader may need in order to enjoy an essay, however, on one or two
occasions an endnote presents the derivation of a formula needed in the
essay.