Viscosity

The students were asked to vote on which marble would fall to the bottom in which fluid first. We treated the entire situation as a race. We allowed three students to drop each marble. Once the race was over we asked the students to tell us why the marble dropped fastest in the water and slowest in the glycerol. We explained to the students that it was due to the different viscosities of the fluid. For a particular liquid, the higher the viscosity, the greater the density. For the younger students we defined viscosity and density without using the words viscosity and density. For the definitions see the theory page.

Question: Three black marbles are dropped into three different fluids at the same time. What will happen and why?

Answer: The marble will drop the fastest in the water and slowest in the glycerol. The reason is due to the different viscosities of the fluids.

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