How to Test the Viscosity of Liquids

Question

How can I find out the viscosity of liquids?

Hypothesis

My hypothesis is the Glycerin will have the lowest viscosity and the Honey will have the highest.

Procedure

1. I will test each liquid one at a time. I will drop the marble at the same height from the cup (6 in.) for every single liquid and I will start my stopwatch as soon as the marble hits the liquid. I will also put the same amount of liquid into each cup, in this case 1/2 a cup.

2. I will stop the stopwatch as soon as the marble hits the bottom of the cup. I will record how long it takes for the marble to reach the bottom of the container (which will depend on how much liquid will be in the cup).

3. I will do the experiment 10 times each for one liquid. Then, I will put all my numbers together and create an average for each liquid.

4. The steps will repeat for four liquids (Glycerin, Honey, Cooking Oil, and Corn Syrup)

Materials:

Corn Syrup

Glycerin

Honey

Cooking Oil

Charts and Graphs

Conclusion

After the tests, I had received all of the averages (by value of number) of each liquid from all the tests. From the highest to the lowest average, it was Honey, Corn Syrup, Glycerin, and Cooking Oil. The data was related to my question because the averages defined the viscosity, depending on how long the marble passed through it in the cup. The data agreed with my hypothesis fairly. My experiment was mostly accurate. Yes, I would say there are some imperfect variable that could be altered in the experiment, but it was mostly precise. The averages I received were clear to what the results would've been thought of in common sense. Out of all of the ten tests I performed, all of the numbers were similar to one another. I suggest that when the project is being experimented, there should be more tests. I also believe an ade should assist because doing all the work at one time could always leave to possible errors.

Abstract

How to Test the Viscosity of Liquids

I wanted to investigate what the viscosity is in four liquids. Those four liquids are Glycerin, Corn Syrup, Honey, and Cooking Oil. My hypothesis was that the Glycerin will have the lowest viscosity, because it’s a moisturizer and it almost feels like water. For the highest viscosity, I guessed that it would be Honey, because it’s sticky and it’s used as a sweetener. My prediction is that any sweetener needs to have an elevated thickness in order to have more flavor. I chose to do this experiment because the difficulty was easy and I wanted to know which liquids were thicker than the others.

To find the viscosity, I poured half a cup of the liquid into a measuring cup. Using a ruler, I measured six inches above the surface of where the cup was placed on. From that height, I dropped a dense marble in the cup of liquid. At the time I dropped the marble into the cup, I started a stopwatch. I then timed how long it took for the marble to reach the bottom of the measuring cup while gravity was pulling it through the liquid. Once the marble had hit the bottom of the cup, I stopped the timer and recorded how many seconds it took for the marble to hit the surface. This test was repeated ten times. The time differs for all the liquids because some might be more stickier and thicker than others. The liquid that has the longest time would have the highest viscosity because the marble took a longer amount of time to hit the bottom the cup.

I created an average for the liquid on how long it would usually take for the marble to hit the bottom of the cup. The average for Honey was 6.4, average for Cooking Oil was .25, for Glycerin it was .37, and for Corn Syrup it ended to have an average of .6 seconds. I noticed the Honey had the larger numbers, following the Corn Syrup. The Cooking Oil and the Glycerin had similar times, and they had the lower numbers. This gave me a image of what the viscosity was for each liquid.

As a result, my hypothesis was mostly accurate. The Honey had the largest viscosity because it had the highest average of 6.4 seconds while the others were smaller numbers. Although the lowest viscosity liquid was the Cooking Oil, but the numbers compared to the Glycerin were very close and only had the difference of a few tenths of a second. In this experiment, there could’ve been a possibility of a few errors that would’ve changed the outcomes of the numbers I’ve recorded. When I dropped the marble from the height of six inches into the cup, I only used my eyes to guide me from what distance it needed to be dropped. I could’ve had shaky hands, or a rough estimation of six inches. My height wasn’t exactly perfect for all the tests. I did stop the stopwatch at a reasonable time, but I wasn’t totally precise. To fix these issues, I could’ve used a tool to give me an exact height instead of holding the marble with my hands before dropping it. I could also had the aid of an assistant to keep a better focus of what the height the marble should be while I prepared the stopwatch. Assistance would also be a good help for the stopwatch, because they have better focus and eye coordination of when the marble falls and when it hits the cup. Overall, I thought the project had reasonable tests and outcomes.