Chemistry / Unit 8 Chem 1390 short lesson, about 20 seconds
Viscosity
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The idea
Viscosity is a liquid's resistance to flow, set by its intermolecular force strength and its molecules' size and shape.
In practice
Honey, with strong attractions between its large sugar molecules, flows far more slowly than water.
Where people slip
Treating viscosity as a fixed property of a liquid ignores that raising temperature lowers it, since faster molecules more easily overcome the same intermolecular forces.
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