Capillary rise and condensation in a cone as an illustration of a spinodal

Spinodal decomposition can be observed only in systems whose dynamics are slow enough to quench through the metastable region where the phase transition occurs by nucleation. We discuss the capillary rise of a fluid in a cone inserted into a bulk fluid, with the wide end down. The rise displays a first-order phase transition with a spinodal and is easily accessible both theoretically and experimentally.