What causes the free surface of a liquid to have minimum area?

$A$ wire of length $10 \text{ cm}$ is gently placed horizontally on the surface of water having surface tension of $75 \times 10^{-3} \text{ N/m}$. What force is required to just pull up the wire from the water surface?

When water is filled carefully in a glass,one can fill it to a height $h$ above the rim of the glass due to the surface tension of water. To calculate $h$ just before water starts flowing,model the shape of the water above the rim as a disc of thickness $h$ having semicircular edges,as shown schematically in the figure. When the pressure of water at the bottom of this disc exceeds what can be withstood due to the surface tension,the water surface breaks near the rim and water starts flowing from there. If the density of water,its surface tension and the acceleration due to gravity are $10^3 \ kg \ m^{-3}$,$0.07 \ N \ m^{-1}$ and $10 \ m \ s^{-2}$,respectively,the value of $h$ (in $mm$) is:

When water is heated,bubbles form at the bottom and detach to rise. Let the radius of the bubble be $R$. The bubble is in circular contact with the bottom of the container with a radius $r$. If $r \ll R$ and the surface tension of water is $T$,find the value of $r$ just before the bubble detaches from the container. (Density of water is $\rho_w$)

$A$ drop of some liquid of volume $0.04 \ cm^{3}$ is placed on the surface of a glass slide. Then another glass slide is placed on it in such a way that the liquid forms a thin layer of area $20 \ cm^{2}$ between the surfaces of the two slides. To separate the slides a force of $16 \times 10^{5} \ dyne$ has to be applied normal to the surfaces. The surface tension of the liquid is (in $dyne \ cm^{-1}$):

$A$ soap film of surface tension $3 \times 10^{-2} \, N/m$ is formed in a rectangular frame and can support a straw. The length of the film is $10 \, cm$. The mass of the straw the film can support is ........ $g$.