FIG. 10 Inflection angle α as a function of the L/H ratio for given contact angles θ.

One advantage of this generalized method over the common maximum L, H method lies in the fact that one is no more restricted to measuring the maximum drop length in order to determine the contact angle. Alternatively, it is possible to measure the drop length at any drop levels and use the measured values to calculate the contact angle. As pointed out above, the determination of the maximum drop length is generally associated with uncertainty and subjective influences, because the three-phase contact points are often smeared out and may not be determined with sufficient precision. However, the drop lengths at higher X-levels (e.g., X>1.5) are well defined and may be measured more accurately, which may compensate or overwhelm the weakness of sensitivity by using Lx,H-values with X>1 for computing the contact angle. Compared to the L-value, the maximum drop height H can be, in general, measured with more satisfactory accuracy.