EXPERIMENT 5: FLUIDITY and VISCOSITY in LIQUIDS

The viscosity of a fluid is a measure of its resistance to flow. As a fundamental property of

fluids, viscosity is observable in our everyday experiences from pouring water, paints,
cooking oil, honey, liquid detergents and shampoo, to mixing chemical solutions or
suspensions. Viscosity is also a crucial parameter in various industrial applications involving
transport, filtration, lubrication, drug formulation and delivery, just to name a few.

Viscosity is a fundamental characteristic property of all liquids. When a liquid flows, it has an
internal resistance to flow. Viscosity is a measure of this resistance to flow or shear. Viscosity
can also be termed as a drag force and is a measure of the frictional properties of the fluid.
Viscosity is a function of temperature and pressure. Although the viscosities of both liquids
and gases change with temperature and pressure, they affect the viscosity in a different
manner.

Viscosity is caused by friction within a fluid. It is the result of intermolecular forces between
particles within a fluid. These intermolecular forces resist the shearing motion of the fluid and
the viscosity of a fluid is directly proportional to the strength of these forces. As a liquid is
more ordered than a gas, it follows that the viscosity of any liquid must be considerably
higher than the viscosity of any gas.

Factors Affecting Viscosity

Temperature:In liquids, when the temperature increases (energy added) the particles move
faster and begin to move away from each other. Because the particles are moving around
they can flow more; their viscosity is lower.

Pressure: Increasing pressure increases the viscosity of a liquid because when pressure is
increased, number of holes in liquid is decreased, thus movement of molecules becomes
difficult.

Purpose of experiment: to investigate the relation between viscosity and flow rate of liquids
Materials: Beakers (4), distilled water, ethanol, olive oil, honey, stopwatch

Experimental Procedure:
- Designate the beakers one by one.
- Weigh each beaker separately and note the masses of beakers.
- Pour each of the distilled water, ethanol, olive oil and honey into separate beakers for 15
seconds.
- Note which material you poured into which beaker
- When pouring processes are finished, reweigh each beaker and calculate the mass of
the material in the beaker.
 Beaker 1 Beaker 2 Beaker 3 Beaker 4

Mass of empty beaker

Name of the material

Mass of filled beaker

Mass of the material

Flow rate (g/sec)

Put in order the flow rates and viscosities of materials. Explain why you obtained that order.