A liquid rises upto a height greater than that for water in given capillary tube. Its reason may be that

Concept:

• Capillary action: If one end of a capillary tube is put into a liquid that wets glass, it is found that the liquid rises into the capillary tube to a certain height.
• This rise is due to inward pull of surface tension acting on the surface which pushes the liquid into the capillary tube.
  • When the intermolecular interaction of the solvent itself is significantly inferior to the surface of the material it interacts with, capillary action occurs.
  • It happens only when the binding forces in the liquid are greater than the cohesive forces, which inevitably develop into surface tension.

The height of the liquid rises or fall (h) is given by

\({\rm{h}} = \frac{{2{\rm{\;T}}\cos {\rm{\theta }}}}{{{\rm{d\;\rho \;g}}}}\)

Where T = surface tension, θ = angle of contact, d = diameter of capillary tube, ρ = density of liquid, g = acceleration due gravity.