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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 February 2011
We report a study of the dynamics of capillary rise of water in a column of glass beads. The water column height h is measured as a function of time t. Analyzing the late-time data in terms of critical pinning, dh/dt α (P − Pa)β, we find an anomalously large exponent β. A similar measurement for contact line pinning in capillary tubes indicates β < 1. We discuss these findings in light of recent theories for domain wall pinning in the random-field Ising model and suggest a new equation of motion which corresponds to the Wolf-Villain model with quenched noise.