On anomalously low values of the tensile strength of water

We provide an explanation for the anomalously low values of liquid tensile strength recorded in some experiments involving the reflection of a pressure pulse las tension) at the free surface of a column of water, or at a flexible membrane. The present work, which involves a development of the 'bullet-piston' method of subjecting a liquid to tension, reconciles previous dynamic stressing results with those obtained for water in a steel Berthelot tube under static stressing. It is shown that the anomalously low values of liquid tensile strength cannot be explained in terms of the effect of the free-surface transition layer in pulse reflection las was previously thought) but may be attributed to deficiencies in the techniques previously used to record dynamic tensions.