Fig. 2. Base radius and apparent angle as a function of time during the dewetting of liquid films.

(A) At intermediate times, the base radius decreases linearly in time, with a dewetting speed that increases with increasing temperature and decreasing volume. (B) The apparent contact angle, θ, is normalized using the equilibrium contact angle, θ_e. The linear dewetting regime, where the speed of the contact line is constant, corresponds to the first plateau. At longer times, there is a crossover to a second plateau, corresponding to the equilibrium state of the drop. The data collapse to a single master curve upon rescaling time by the relaxation time of the rim, τ_rim. The solid line corresponds to the theoretical prediction for the first plateau (see text).