Final answer:
Surface tension is the property of liquids caused by cohesive forces that minimizes the surface area, strongly influenced by intermolecular forces and can be reduced by surfactants. It enables denser objects to float on liquid surfaces and causes water droplets to bead.
Step-by-step explanation:
The characteristic property of liquids that is due to the inward pull among the molecules, which brings the molecules on the surface closer together, is called surface tension. Cohesive forces between molecules cause this effect, resulting in the liquid's surface contracting to the smallest possible area. Molecules at the surface are pulled inward by other liquid molecules, which creates a surface that is tightened, similar to how a film would be.
Liquids with strong intermolecular forces, such as water which exhibits hydrogen bonding, have high surface tension. This property allows objects denser than the liquid itself to float, such as a paper clip on water, and also results in water droplets beading up on a waxed surface due to the lack of attraction between water molecules and the nonpolar surface.
Surfactants, like soaps and detergents, can reduce surface tension by interfering with the cohesive forces in polar liquids like water. The implications of surface tension are evident in other phenomena such as capillary action and the meniscus formation in a tube.