Question

At room temperature, the surface tension of water is 72.0 mJ·m–2. What is the energy required to change a spherical drop of water with a diameter of 2.00 mm to four smaller spherical drops of equal size? The surface area of a sphere of radius r is 4π r2 and the volume is 4π r3/3.

Answer 1

find the energy of the larger sphere, which will equal (surface tension * surface area), then find the energy of 4 smaller spheres, which will equal 4*(small surface tension * surface area) and compare the two.