Introduction

In the viscosity project you will be building your own falling sphere viscometer and using it to measure the viscosity of liquids. Here are two videos to watch about this:

Measurement of Liquid Viscosity using falling sphere viscometer

Falling Ball Viscometer

Here is a worksheet that I found. Please review.

When this class is at the SCC Davis Center: The liquids you will be measuring are mixtures of food items. I am interested to hear your ideas about what to test.

When this class is at SCC Main Campus: You have a much broader range of liquid to test.

Over the last few days I have been thinking a lot about this project.

Updated project description:

Maximum Viscosity Dispersed from Commercial Spray Bottles

Viscosity is defined in several ways. Two working definitions of viscosity are “the thickness of a fluid” and “the resistance of a fluid to flow.” Scientifically, viscosity can be defined as “a measure of its resistance to deformation at a given rate.”[1] Scientists and nonscientists have a general idea about what viscosity is. In this project, we study the subject in more depth.

The goal of this project is to investigate the viscosity limit of commercially available spray bottles. These bottles are commonly used for cleaners and oils. Oils are significantly more viscous than water, approximately 60-80 times more viscous depending upon the type of oil.

As part of this project students will put together a falling ball viscometer and use it to measure the viscosity of pure liquids and binary solutions in order to test the limits of viscosity that can be used with different types of spray bottles.

Students who work on this project are projected to learn, develop, and practice the following skills:

1. Safety certification (every student on every project)

2. Keeping a notebook (every student on every project)

3. Graphing data (every student on every project)

4. Attending individual and project meetings with contributions (every student on every project)

5. Putting together an instrument (falling ball viscometer)

6. Calibrating an instrument (falling ball viscometer)

7. Collecting data using an instrument (falling ball viscometer)

8. Calculating physical properties of solutions (viscosity) based on collected data

9. Testing the limit of devices (spray bottles)

Fun fact (from Wikipedia): The word "viscosity" is derived from the Latin viscum ("mistletoe"). Viscum also referred to a viscous glue derived from mistletoe berries.

Additional Viscosity Videos

Body Lotion Spray bottle

Vaseline (6 Pack) 6.4oz Bottle Body Spray Lotion Moisturizer For Dry Skin Gift Set For Men Women

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viscosity, accessed 2024/08/29