The process and tools you need are fairly basic. To get a general viscosity rating of a liquid, you can use a simple measuring technique. Now you know the centipoise rating of these fluids. Many of these products you probably use in your daily life. A rating of a higher centipoise is going to flow much slower. It is a unit of dynamic viscosity, the typical type of viscosity we think of.Ī fluid with a low centipoise will flow and move easily and fast. What is Centipoise?Ĭentipoise (CPS) is the viscosity value that is assigned to liquids. The measurement we use to describe the viscosity of a fluid is known as centipoise. While water-like, semi-viscous, and viscous are good terms to use sometimes you need to get more specific about the viscosity of a fluid. Viscous – Hair gel or pastes which are thick and do not move easily.Semi-Viscous – Maple syrup or soybean oil that is a bit thicker in nature.Water-Thin – Considered to have free flowing characteristics, such as perfumes/colognes or obviously water.These are the three main terms used to describe the viscosity of a liquid. At high viscosities, fluids are going to flow and move much slower, a good example would be a gel, lotion, or even thicker peanut butter type consistency. A familiar example would be liquids such as water and alcohol. That is, unless a propeller is attached to propel or push the ship forward, or you could also create this same push manually with an oar.Īt low viscosities, fluids will flow with greater ease. If you set a ship in motion it would eventually come to a halt because of the viscosity of the water, which resists the flow of the boat.

What causes viscosity is the cohesive forces between molecules in the fluid. That way they can experience the difference in force that is necessary to move the spatula first hand.What is viscosity? In simple terms, viscosity is a measure of a liquid’s resistance to flow, or the measure of internal friction. You could also prepare beakers with water, honey and maybe peanut butter, and have your students run a spatula through all of them. This should be more tangible and easier to understand. How about the difference in viscosity between water and honey? As a demonstration experiment, you could use a funnel in which you pour an equal amount of either liquid, and then measure the time it takes until it has passed through the funnel. However, since you want to explain this to first-graders, you might wanna start with something more obvious than the difference in viscosity between ethanol and water.

The speed of the outer cylinder is a measure for the viscosity. Between them is a layer of the liquid that you wish to determine the viscosity of. The outer one can rotate almost freely (with some slight and constant retardation/breaking applied), while the inner one is driven by a motor, like so. A common experiment would be to have two concentric cylinders.

At home viscosity test