Viscosity Presentation By Team Eight

1. Viscosity PresentationByTeam Eight

2. Objective • To determine how fluid a liquid really is by measuring its viscosity. • We will simply see how fast a sphere falls through a fluid. The faster the sphere falls, the lower the viscosity. The slower the sphere falls, the higher the viscosity.

3. Material List / Price List • Materials • Marbles (steel and glass) -$1.00 • Motor oil (10W-30) -$2.00 • Graduated cylinder -$5.00 • Calculator-$15.00 • Stopwatch -$4.00 • Ruler -$1.00 • Thermometer-$15.00

4. Method • The measurement involves determining the velocity of the falling sphere. This is accomplished by dropping each sphere through a measured distance of fluid and measuring how long it takes to traverse the distance. Thus, you know distance and time, so you also know velocity, which is distance/time. • The formula for determining the viscosity is decorated with Greek letters and a squared term, but simply amounts to multiplying some numbers and then dividing by some others: • delta p = difference in density between the sphere and the liquid • g = acceleration of gravity • a = radius of sphere • v = velocity = d/t = (distance sphere falls)/(time of it takes to fall)

5. Data Entry

6. UsefulTables • 100 Centipoise = 1 Poise 1 Centipoise = 1 mPa s (Millipascal Second) • 1 Poise = 0.1 Pa s (Pascal Second)

7. Setup Model

8. Resources • Interactive Model • http://www.nasaexplores.com/index.php • http://www.vp-scientific.com/Viscosity_Tables.htm • http://www.spacegrant.hawaii.edu/class_acts/ViscosityTe.html • Cornell University Model