The Free Surface Profile: Investigating Liquid Energy

[i_island0]

In fox mcdonald - 6th edition page 83...i read that the free surface profile is independent of any property of liquid. But i have doubt that any liquid tried to acquire a shape so as to minimize its energy.
So what went wrong?

 

[Andy Resnick]

I don't have that book, but the free surface profile- the local curvature- is set by the pressure jump across the surface and the interfacial energy (Laplace equation). I suppose one could argue that neither is a property of the bulk fluid, but the interfacial energy is dependent on both materials.