The Examination of How Temperature Affects the Viscosity Research Question: To determine the relationship between the temperatures

of the vegetable olive oil and its viscosity. The viscosity will be represented by the time the ball with a mass of 66.09g takes to reach the bottom of the graduated cylinder from where it is dropped at the surface of the oil. Background Information: Viscosity, measured in Pascal seconds, quantizes how much a liquid is resistant to a motion. The higher the viscosity, the more resistant the liquid is against motion. Specifically for vegetable olive oil, the viscosity is 84mPas at 20 C. The viscosity is affected by various factors, one of which is temperature. As temperature increases, the viscosity of any liquid decreases, and as temperature decreases, the viscosity of the liquid increases. The two variables have a negative relationship. This can be explained by the characteristics of the cooking oil molecules. As the cooking oil is heated through a hot bath, the molecules of the cooking oil begin to move at a greater average speed. Their intermolecular forces decrease, which decrease the viscosity. On the other hand, as the temperature decreases, the average speed of the cooking oil molecules decreases and they begin to group closely together, increasing their intermolecular forces and the viscosity. Thus, as temperature increases, the viscosity decreases. The negative relationship is known but this experiment aims to know what sort of relationship, exponential or root relationship, the two variables have (Elert). Dependent Variable: the time the ball with a mass of 66.09g takes to reach the bottom of the graduated cylinder from where the ball is released at the top of the oil. The graduated cylinder has a height of 50.0cm and a radius of 3.5cm and will be filled with 1000mL of vegetable olive oil of different temperatures Independent Variable: the temperature of the vegetable olive oil (10C, 15C, 25C, 35C, 45C, 55C, 65C, 75C and 85C). The temperature will controlled by a hot bath. Control Variables: 1. The type of cooking oil has to be the same. Different cooking oils have different viscosities which will affect the time the ball takes to reach the bottom of the cylinder. This variable can be controlled by using vegetable olive oil from the same bottle or at least from the same brand of the same product. 2. The ball used should be the same throughout the experiment. Different balls have dissimilar properties that may affect the time they take to reach the bottom of the graduated cylinder. This variable will be controlled by using a metal ball of radius 1.3cm and mass of 66.09g throughout the experiment. 3. Ideally, the temperature of the surrounding should be constant. Once the oil is out of the hot bath, it will begin to reach thermal equilibrium with its surrounding. This variable, however, cannot be controlled by the one performing the experiment. Nonetheless, by performing the experiment within a short period of time, the temperature of the environment will not be fluctuating significantly.

4. xThe graduated cylinder that is used should be the same one. Once the oil that reached an equilibrium temperature with the water is poured into the graduated cylinder, it will begin to lose heat, in the cases of the high oil temperatures, or gain heat, in the cases of low oil temperatures. Different surfaces of the graduated cylinder will lead to different heat losses. By maintaining the same graduated cylinder, the heat being lost or gained would be the same throughout the experiment. 5. The method of releasing the ball should be the same. For instance, dropping the ball at different heights above the oil will yield different times that the ball takes to reach the bottom of the graduated cylinder because the velocities at which they first hit the surface of the oil will be different. To control this, the ball will have a hook with which a 10.00cm piece of string will balance the ball just on the surface of the oil. Upon release, the experimenter will release one end of the string and cause the ball to fall. A string is used to release the ball instead of the experimenter himself because he is prone to make some unconscious adjustments when releasing the ball. Thus, by not having someone directly releasing the ball will better control the variable of ball release. Fig 1: Diagram of the hot bath set-up

When testing the colder temperatures of 10C and 15C, which are below the room temperatures of 25C, the hot plate will not be used.

Fig 2: Diagram of the ball release set-up

Material: 1 timer (0.001second) 1 1000mL graduated cylinder that has a height of 50.0cm and a radius of 3.5cm (5mL) 1 metal ball with a mass of 66.09g0.01g and a radius of 1.30cm0.05cm that has a hook 10.00cm piece of string (0.05) Vegetable olive oil 1 1L beaker (100mL) 1 2L beaker(100mL) Ice 1 Hot plate 1 thermometer (0.5C) Water The precision of the beakers is not absolutely necessary since the instrument is not used for measuring. Method: 1. Measure 1000mL of vegetable olive oil with the graduated cylinder. The oil should be from the same bottle or at least from the same brand and product. 2. Transfer the oil in to the 1L beaker and place it in the 2L beaker 3. Pour water into the 2L beaker so that the water level is above the oil level that is in the 1L beaker. The water will prevent any sudden temperature changes. However, the main purpose is to be able to cool the oil for the lower temperatures without putting the ice in the oil in which case the viscosity will change. To maintain the same

method, using water is needed even for the higher temperatures. 4. Place the thermometer in the oil and place the entire 2L beaker with the 1L beaker and thermometer on the hot plate as shown in Fig 2. 5. Turn on the hot plate and heat the water and oil at a constant temperature of 85C. The temperature will be measured by the thermometer which should not be touching the bottom of the beaker; it should be suspended in the oil so that it measures the temperature of the oil. 6. Wait until the thermometer measures 85C as the temperature of the vegetable olive oil. Make necessary adjustments to the hot plate so that the oil reaches that temperature. 7. Pour the heated cooking oil into the graduated cylinder. The same graduated cylinder has to be used throughout the experiment. 8. Hold the metal ball at the edge of the oil level by using the string as shown in Fig 2. The 10.00cm string should be folded in half and hold the metal ball by its hook. Also, the ball should not be touching the side of the graduated cylinder to prevent the metal ball from hitting the sides of the graduated cylinder which would change the time for the trials that the ball hit the side and those that did not. The same ball should be used throughout the experiment. 9. Release one end of the string, which will release the ball, and immediately start the timer. This method will control the ball release variable so that the ball is released the same way for every trial. 10. Stop the timer as soon as the ball hits the bottom of the graduated cylinder with the oil in it. 11. Take out the ball by removing the oil into the beaker. 12. Pour the oil in the beaker back into the graduated cylinder and add some oil, if necessary, so that the graduated cylinder reads 1000mL of oil. 13. Repeat step 2 to 12 for another four trials so that there are a total of five trials for when the temperature of the oil is 85C. This step 13 will end with step 12. 14. Repeat steps 2 to 12 for the temperatures of 10C, 15C, 25C, 35C, 45C, 55C, 65C, and 75C. For the temperatures of 10C and 15C, do not use a hot plate but ice since it is lower than the room temperature. Moreover, since 25C is the room temperature, neither ice nor hot plate is needed when experimenting for 25C. 15. If any anomalies occur, do more trial runs for that temperature of vegetable olive oil. Trial runs have been performed with 100mL of cooking oil instead of 1000mL. The time that the metal ball took to fall to the bottom of the graduated cylinder did decrease as the temperature of the oil increased. Since there was a change in time with 100mL of vegetable olive oil, there should also be a change in time when using 1000mL of oil.

Works Cited Elert, Glenn. "Viscosity." The Physics <http://physics.info/viscosity/>. Hypertextbook. Web. 26 Mar. 2012.