As a result, the liquid forms shapes, like droplets, to minimize surface area. It is responsible for the formation of dew drops, soap bubbles, and raindrops. In some cases, surface tension gives rise to capillary instability, disturbances in liquid columns that eventually force them to break into separate droplets to lower the surface energy.
A well-known form of capillary instability is Plateau–Rayleigh instability. This concept was proposed in 1873. It describes how a cylindrical stream of liquid becomes unstable due to surface tension and breaks into droplets.
This is commonly observed in water streams breaking into droplets as they fall. An everyday example of this is the thin stream of water from a tap breaking into droplets as it falls.