ABSTRACT
It seems possible to measure contact angles by applying the thermodynamic instability of a two-dimensional meniscus, as stated above. However, there are many metastable positions on the horizontal plate as shown in Fig. 11,
θ Advance of meniscus
Retreat of meniscus
which might make the recognition of instability difficult because the attachment point of the meniscus could move among them even under a stable condition. Also, it is actually not very easy to handle the two-dimensional meniscus under a horizontal plate because an axisymmetric meniscus is usually formed when the plate is drawn from a liquid bath. This may be because the axisymmetric shape has less energy than a two-dimensional one.
