Thursday 8 October 2015

How Temperature Affects Viscosity of a Fluid

Viscosity is the measure of a liquid's resistance from flowing because of friction. As the temperature increases, the viscosity decreases. On the other hand, as temperature rises viscosity in gases increase. The lower the viscosity, the easier the fluid flows and vice versa. A way you can test viscosity of a fluid is using the Ramp Method. To carry out this experiment, you pour a fluid down a ramp and time it's speed.  

Wednesday 7 October 2015

How Density of a Fluid is Affected by Changes in Temperature

Fluids become less dense when heated. As the temperature rises, the molecules move faster creating more space between the particles. However if the temperature drops to a colder state, the particles will do the opposite. The molecules will begin to move slower and there will be little to no space between the particles.

Monday 5 October 2015

How Density of a Fluid is Affected by the Addition of a Solute

The more solute you add to a fluid, the denser it gets. This is because the molecules from the solute settle in the spaces between the solvent molecules instead of replacing them. As a result, there is a lot of mass in the same amount of space therefore the density increases. 

How Different Fluids have Different Compressibility

Each different state has a different level of compressibility. When force is applied (ex. crushing a plastic bottle) it is being acted upon by the force of compression. A solids particles are bound tightly together so there is little to no room for compression. A liquid is also incompressible because there is not enough space in between each particle. Gas however has lots of space between each particle allowing easy compression to take place.

How Pressure is Exerted Equally in all Directions in an Enclosed Fluid

Since the particles are in constant motion there is pressure exerted on them by the force of gravity. There is pressure on the sides of a container and there is also pressure on the bottom of a container from the weight of the substance inside.  Pascals Law states that pressure is exerted in all directions throughout an enclosed fluid. From Pascals Law, there has been many new devices created such as: hydraulic systems (using enclosed liquids) and pneumatic systems (using enclosed air).

Wednesday 30 September 2015

Different States of Matter

Solid:
The molecules that form a solid are bonded tightly together with little to no space between them. They vibrate in a fixed position but they don't have room to move around. They additionally have a definite shape and volume.

Liquid: There is more spaces between the particles than there is in a solid. This ensures that the molecules have room too slip past each other and cause the fluid to flow. There are some attractive forces keeping them from moving apart from each other. Additionally, because it is a fluid it can take the shape of containers.


Gas: Since there are no attractive forces keeping the gas particles close to each other, they have the most kinetic energy out of all three states of matter. This means the molecules are constantly moving and bumping into each other. Gas is a fluid as is a liquid.