Effective spring description of a bubble or a droplet interacting with a particle

It is shown that the interaction of a particle with a liquid drop or a gas bubble may be quantitatively described over the whole distance regime by treating the fluid interface as a Hookean spring. An algorithm suitable for analyzing atomic force microscopy data suitable for a calculator or a spread-sheet is given and applied to data for oil drops. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science (USA).