The Owens/Wendt theory (after D. K. Owens and R. C. Wendt) divides the surface energy into two components: surface energy due to dispersive interactions and surface energy due to polar interactions. This theory is derived from the combination of Youngs relation, which relates the contact angle to the surface energies of the solid and liquid and to the interface tension, and Goods equation (after R. J. Good), which relates the interface tension to the polar and dispersive components of the surface energy. The resulting  equation is
Note that this equation has the form of y = mx + b, with
As such, the polar and dispersive components of the solid's surface energy are determined by the slope and intercept of the resulting graph. Of course, the problem at this point is that in order to make that graph, knowing the surface energy of the probe liquid is not enough, as it is necessary to know specifically how it breaks down into its polar and dispersive components as well.
To do this, one can simply reverse the procedure by testing the probe liquid against a standard reference solid that is not capable of polar interactions, such as PTFE. If the contact angle of a sessile drop of the probe liquid is measured on a PTFE surface with
the principle equation reduces to
Since the total surface tension of the liquid is already known, this equation determines the dispersive component, and the difference between the total and dispersive components gives the polar component.