Hamed Nilforoshan & Sydney Lehman 5/24/2012 Orange

The Relationship between the Viscosity and Temperature of a Liquid

Introduction: One of the most significant results of plate tectonics, which poses a huge threat to humans around the globe, is volcanic eruptions. Volcanic eruptions are the building up of magma, partially melted rock from beneath the Earths surface with a high plasticity, within a magma chamber underground over an extended period of time (1). Magma chambers exist underneath volcanoes, which are structures that eventually provide an opening for the magma from the magma chamber to pass through, when it can no longer handle all of the pressure of the magma gathered up underneath it (1). As a volcano erupts, it is classified by how explosive it is, which primarily relates to the properties of the volcanos magma, specifically its viscosity. The viscosity of magma, a measure of a fluids resistance to flow, depends on how the molecules in the fluid interact. If the molecules can easily flow by eachother, then the substance has a low viscosity, and if the molecules cannot flow easily and have a lot of friction, than the substance has a high viscosity (2). In order to be explosive, the magma needs to be very viscous, which traps more gases inside the pent up magma, increasing pressure in the magma chamber and thus the force with which its contents are ejected. Conversely, a non-explosive (quiet) explosion has magma that is of a low viscosity and allows gases to escape so there is less pressure when the volcano does erupt. There are many factors that influence the viscosity of magma, such as its silica (SiO2) content, which is known to be found in large quantities within magma that is highly viscous, and less in non-viscous magma. However, other factors, such as temperature may also influence the viscosity of not just magma, but any liquid in general. This is because temperature influences the

Hamed Nilforoshan & Sydney Lehman 5/24/2012 Orange molecular structure of a substance, which is also the difference between a solid and a liquid, the extreme ends of viscositys spectrum. The possibility that temperature may have the potential to impact the viscosity of magma poses an interesting question, of what the relationship between the viscosity of magma, or any plastic solid or liquid, and temperature is, and how temperature can influence the explosiveness of a volcanic eruption. It has been hypothesized that as temperature decreases, viscosity will increase because as temperature decreases, molecules within a liquid become more compact and move to be closer together, increasing friction and resisting the flow of the liquid, and any objects that may pass through it. Methods: In order to perform this lab, three water baths, one warm, one cold, and one at room temperature were needed along with 3 different colored oil tubes containing different substances, as well as a steel and white ball, for each water bath. First, two rubber O-rings were measured onto each of the tubes to be exactly 16 cm apart by a ruler. After being immersed in each respective water bath, each tube was held vertically so that the steel ball was directly below the white ball at the top of the tube, held in place by a magnet so that air bubbles were allowed to come up to the top of the tube. Next, the steel ball was released and a stopwatch was started when the white ball was just beneath the nearest O-ring, and stopped when it completely dropped past the bottom of the next O-ring, the time being recorded in a data table. To ensure accuracy, three trials were performed for each oil tube at each temperature and were repeated for all oil tubes. Finally, the speed of the ball in each oil tube was calculated based on the average time of the three trials for each oil tube.

Hamed Nilforoshan & Sydney Lehman 5/24/2012 Orange Results: In Graph #1, the velocity of each tubes marble (cm/seconds), is graphed according to how cold the tubes surroundings were, 1 being the warmest and 3 being the coldest. Graph #1

Calculations: Calculations Trial 1: 5.8 seconds Trial 2: 6.59 seconds Trial 3: 5.93 seconds 5.8 + 6.59 + 5.93 = 18.32 18.32/3 = 6.1 seconds average 16/6.1 = ~2.63 cm/s Explanation Data recorded for the 3 trials of the red tube in the room-temperature container All trial times added together (Step #1 of averaging) Total divided by # of trials (3) (Step #2 of averaging) The distance the marble had to travel is divided by how long it took, producing the resulting velocity of the marble in the liquid.

Discussion:

Hamed Nilforoshan & Sydney Lehman 5/24/2012 Orange To consider the results of the lab relevant to temperatures effect on viscosity, it first needs to be established that the average velocity of an object passing through a liquid is relative to the liquids viscosity. Viscosity, or a fluids resistance to flow, can be related to the time it took for the marble to pass through, because as a liquids resistance to flow increases, the liquid surrounding an object like a marble will part much slower as the object tries to force its way through it, restraining its motion, which will then increase the time it takes for the object to pass through the liquid (3). When velocity is calculated, the distance that the marble had to pass through is divided by the time it took to pass, resulting in higher velocities belonging to the less viscous liquids, because a less viscous liquid will allow an object to pass through in a shorter amount of time. However, if a tube contained a viscous liquid, it would have taken longer for the marble to pass through, consequently decreasing the velocity of the marble. To be able to observe viscosity, it was necessary to time each test tube several times, to then average these results and calculate the marbles velocity, graphed according to tube color (substance) and the coldness of the water bath the tubes were immersed in (see Graph #1). Observing the data shows that for each water bath, the velocity of the red tubes marble was highest, and that of the blue tube was lowest, with the black tube falling in between. Additionally the ball in the red tube always moved between 1-2 cm/second faster than that of the blue tube. Combined with the fact that the marble passed through the black tube at rates up to ~1 cm/second higher than it did for the blue tube, but generally 1 cm/second slower when compared to the red rube, allowing it to be concluded that when ordered by viscosity (from least to highest), the tubes would be in the order of: red, black, and then blue. As mentioned before, this is because a high velocity present within the tube equates to a low viscosity belonging to the tubes substance, which permits objects to pass through the tube in a shorter amount of time.

Hamed Nilforoshan & Sydney Lehman 5/24/2012 Orange However, the question of temperatures relation to viscosity has been left unanswered. This is because the previous conclusion was made based on situations where temperature was uniform. However, by observing each of the individual test tubes, and the change that occurs for their viscosity (the slowness of the marbles velocity) in different water baths, three supporting sets of data can be found. As the graph (Graph #1) shows, the velocity of the marble in all three colors of tubes decreases with the temperature. In fact, for each tube, 0.5-2 cm/second were lost from the velocity of the marble passing through the tube in a warm water bath, when a tube containing the same liquid was placed in a cold water bath. Moreover, the velocity of all three substances within a room-temperature water bath fell right in between those of the cold and warm water baths on Graph #1, further supporting the hypothesis, by demonstrating the gradual decrease in velocity (increase in viscosity) present as temperature fell in all tubes. Based on the decrease in velocity of the three separate tubes as temperature decreased, it can be concluded that a decrease in temperature does in fact bring an increase in viscosity, which was exactly what was already hypothesized, meaning that the hypothesis for the lab is fully supported by its data. This makes sense because when a liquid is at a high temperature, the molecules of the liquid will be energized and spread further apart, which enables the molecules to move, making a liquid more fluid and flow-able, as friction between the molecules decreases (4). On the other hand, when a liquid is cold, molecules have much less energy and move closer to eachother, clinging together and developing friction, allowing the liquids flow to be resisted which makes it highly viscous (4). According to the data, the most highly viscous oil is that of the blue tube, particularly within the coldest water bath, where the marbles velocity was the absolute least (~.5 cm/second) and viscosity was the highest. This means that if this tubes liquid was present within a volcano,

Hamed Nilforoshan & Sydney Lehman 5/24/2012 Orange and did erupt, it would by far cause the most explosive eruption. This is because a viscous liquid is firm enough to trap the most gases, such as CO2 inside of it, and can also support higher pressures, as it grows within a volcanos magma chamber, partially because it will not allow gases to move at high velocities. It is the gases within the magma, combined with high pressures, which cause an eruption to be explosive when a volcano does erupt. High pressures within a magma chamber can cause an explosive eruption because they allow ash/tephra to be ejected with more force out of the volcano, which is aided by the gases that are pushing in every direction to escape, but cannot until the last minute due to the magmas high viscosity. Although this lab did produce what seemed to be logical results, that is, that cool temperatures will compact a liquids molecules enough to slow down movement and cause high viscosity; there are still some potential sources of error within the lab. For example, one flaw of the lab was that over time, the two non-room-temperature water baths will eventually return back to room temperature, so if the lab was set up long before it was performed, the differences in viscosity may not have been drastic enough to be noticed. Furthermore, although the experiment was repeated three times for each tube to ensure accuracy, the data could still be faulty because of the lack of specificity of the measurement of when the white ball is just beneath the O-ring and when the white ball is completely past the following O-ring. If the person who is recording this data moves, then their perspective will change and the amount of time that it is perceived for the white ball to travel to the destination could seem too little or too much.

Hamed Nilforoshan & Sydney Lehman 5/24/2012 Orange Appendix: Main Data:
Trial # Red Blue Black Room Temp Warm Temp Cold Temp Time 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 5.8 6.59 5.93 4.59 4.03 4.09 15.09 12.09 18.25 18.76 18.56 12.59 12.5 12.68 32.8 29.15 13.18 12.76 11.8 7.03 8.16 8.21 24.28 24.4

3 13.12 26.3 24.76

Average Times:
Temp: Room Warm Cold Red 6.11 4.29 13.43 Blue 18.52 12.64 29.42 Black 12.58 7.95 25.48

Average Velocities
Temp: Room Red 2.61865794 Black Warm Cold

3.7296 1.1914

Blue 0.86393089 1.26582 0.5438 1.2718601 2.01258 0.6279

Resources: 1. Tarbuck, Edward J., and Frederick K. Lutgens. Earth Science. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1997. Print. 2. "Types Of Eruptions." ThinkQuest. Oracle Foundation. Web. 24 May 2012. <http://library.thinkquest.org/C003603/english/volcanoes/typesoferuptions.shtml>. 3. Martin, C., and C. Wilborn. "What Is Velocity?" WiseGeek. Conjecture, 26 Apr. 2012. Web. 24 May 2012. <http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-velocity.htm>. 4. "Viscosity Example 3." Viscosity Example 3. Web. 24 May 2012. <http://www.chem.purdue.edu/gchelp/liquids/problems/viscosity_ex3.html>.