DETERMINATION OF THE COFFICIENT OF VISCOSITY OF OIL-EXPERIMENT 6

Marks: 36.5/50

ABSTRACT In this experiment we determined the coefficient of the viscosity of motor oil of the system consisting of a cylinder containing motor oil, clamped to a retort stand. To do this four steel ball bearings of radius r were considered falling through a viscous medium (motor oil) until it reached terminal velocity and the time for a bearing to reach the bottom of the cylinder was obtained. By using the gradient of the best line we determined that the coefficient of viscosity of motor oil is 3.2 103 P which is consistent with the value of obtained in other laboratory experiments. INTRODUCTION Some liquids like petrol, alcohol, water etc. flow more freely than honey, glycerine, oil etc. This is due to the property of the liquid called viscosity by virtue of which the liquid opposes the relative motion between its different layers. With the knowledge of the coefficients of viscosities of these liquids, the motive behind this experiment was to determine the coefficient of viscosity of motor oil in order to see how it would compare with of other liquids. According to viscosity is the property of a liquid, which indicates how resistant that liquid is to flow. It is analogous to friction between solid surfaces, except that it comes into play only when the fluid flows. (Noltinge, 1995) Postulated that viscosity is estimated In terms of coefficient of viscosity (). He further explained that an instrument used to measure viscosity is called a viscometer, a special type of rheometer which is limited to measurement of viscosity. The SI units of viscosity are the Pascal second. The c.g.s unit is the poise (=10 Pascal seconds) In this particular experiment we measured the diameter of four ball bearings to determine their radius, r and a stopwatch was used to measure the time of fall for a single ball bearing. We repeated the time measurement six times to reduce experimental uncertainty. For each radius , was calculated and a graph of time, t was plotted against and the gradient of best line was obtained. The gradient, distance of fall (S), density of oil (), density of the largest sphere () and constant g (gravity) were together used (as we shall illustrate) to determine the coefficient of viscosity of oil.

THEORETICAL BACKGROUND Consider a sphere (ball bearing) of radius r, falling freely through a viscous medium (motor oil) of coefficient of viscosity and density as illustrated in figure 6.1 below

cylinder Ball bearing

oil

Figure 6.1

The various forces acting on the body are; Weight of the body, acting downwards Viscous drag Fv, acting upwards (opposing motion of the body) Up thrust or Buoyant force (FT) of liquids, equal to weight of the displaced liquid.

As the body falls, its velocity and the viscous drag increase due to gravity. There comes a stage, when all the three forces balance each other i.e., the net forces acting on the sphere is zero. When these conditions are achieved, the body starts moving with a constant velocity. This constant velocity is called terminal velocity. According to Newtons second law Net force = ma Where m, is the mass of the sphere From the diagram =W- FT - Fv W= mg, is the weight

FT is the up thrust weight of displaced liquid volume of body acceleration due to gravity FT V g
3

density of liquid

Fv= 6 r v, is the viscous force proportional to the velocity v of the ball Initially the body moves with downward acceleration until the sphere acquires terminal velocity vf when there is no more acceleration and hence the net force is zero. Therefore equation (1) becomes; 0 = mg But m=V=
3

g - 6 r vf
3

This then means that 0=

3

g -

g - 6 r vf

(2)

Making vf the subject of the formula gives; Vf = = But vf = (3) (4)

Where s is the distance travelled in time t Using equation 3 and 4 we get = g( )

9s = t (2 g t= t=

(5)

METHODS AND MATERIALS We used the following pieces of equipment to do the experiment; Cylinder filled with motor oil Four ball bearings of different diameters Micrometer screw gauge Horseshoe Magnet Electronic balance, uncertainty 0.01g Stop watch, uncertainty 0.01s Retort stand with clamps Meter rule tissue

Four ball bearings of different diameters were provided. We then tied two strings around the bottom part of the cylinder to mark the distance s, which would be travelled by the sphere after acquiring terminal velocity. Since the spheres will reach terminal velocity after travelling a certain distance, we ensured that the top string was a distance of 70cm from the top of the oil. One of the spheres was dropped into the motor oil in the cylinder. This was done carefully to monitor the motion of the sphere by ensuring that it does not touch the walls of the cylinder. We recorded time t, taken by the sphere to travel the distance s. A horseshoe magnet was used to remove the sphere from the oil and without changing the distance s, we repeated the procedure with the same sphere six times and obtained average time, and its uncertainty, . We repeated the above procedure for all the spheres while keeping s unchanged. A micrometer screw gauge was then used to measure the diameter of each sphere five times and to determine their radius and the average radius . Using the electric balance we measured the mass of the largest sphere to be used together with its volume to determine the density of the material which the spheres are made of. (Physics Lab Manual, 2011, pp. 45-46)

RESULTS AND ANALYSIS A table of the mean values of time intervals together with their uncertainties appear below; Density of oil, = 884.76 kgm-3 Distance of fall, s = 0.27 0.01m Time of fall t (s) Sphere 2 Sphere 3 1.09 1.50 1.06 1.56 1.06 1.56 1.09 1.50 1.06 1.59 1.12 1.63 1.08 1.56 0.05 0.08

Average time, (s) (s)

Sphere 1 1.22 1.01 1.00 0.96 1.01 1.06 1.04 0.20

Sphere 4 2.02 1.87 2.03 2.09 1.93 1.94 1.98 0.10

Calculation of average time, ; Sphere 1 = =1.043333333 1.04s Calculations for Sphere 1 - Lowest t = 1.04- 0.96 = 0.08s Largest t - = 1.22-1.04 = 0.18s Sphere 2 - Lowest t= 1.08 1.06 =0.02s Largest t - = 1.12 1.08 = 0.04s = greater error + instrumental error = 0.04 + 0.01 = 0.05s = greater error + instrumental error = 0.18+0.01 = 0.19 0.20s ; sphere 2 = =1.08s

A table of the mean radius together with their uncertainties appear below; Diameter, d (mm) Sphere 2 Sphere 3 6.35 4.67 6.36 4.69 6.35 4.70 6.37 4.69 6.36 4.69 6.36 4.69 0.02 0.03 3.18 2.35 0.02 0.03

Average d, Average r,

Sphere 1 6.99 6.98 6.99 6.98 6.99 6.99 0.02 3.50 0.02

Sphere 4 3.96 3.96 3.97 3.96 3.97 3.96 0.02 1.98 0.02

Calculations for average d, Sphere 1: Calculations for Sphere 1: Lowest d = 6.99 6.98 =0.01mm Largest d - = 6.99- 6.99 0.00mm Sphere 2: Lowest d = 6.36 6.35 = 0.01mm Largest d - = 6.37 6.36 = 0.01mm Calculations for average r, Sphere 1: =

=6.99

sphere 2:

= 6.36

= greater error + instrumental error = 0.01 + 0.01 = 0.02

= greater error + instrumental error = 0.01 + 0.01 = 0.02

sphere 2: = =3.495

= =3.18

Calculations for Sphere 1 - Lowest r = 3.50 = 0.01 Largest r - = Sphere 2 - Lowest r = 3.18 0.01mm Largest r - = - 3.18 0.01mm = greater error + instrumental error = 0.01 + 0.01 = 0.02 3.50 = 0.00mm = greater error + instrumental error = 0.01 + 0.01 = 0.02

Table of , Sphere No. 1 2 3 4

and together with their uncertainties 0.08 0.10 0.18 0.26 0.001 0.001 0.003 0.005 ( )

3.50 0.02 3.18 0.02 2.35 0.03 1.98 0.02

1.04 0.20 1.08 0.05 1.56 0.08 1.98 0.10

Calculations of :

sphere 1 = 0.081632653 0.08 mm

sphere 2 = 0.098888493 0.10 mm |

Calculations for Sphere 1

( ): |

-2 =| 0.08

-2 = |

sphere 2

-2 = |

0.10

= 0.000914285 0.001 mm

= 0.001257861 0.001 mm

Calculation of centroid value X-value: = 0.155 0.16mm centroid = (0.16,1.42) Calculation of gradient of best line: using points (0.16,1.42) and (0.11,1.13) M= = = 5.8 mm Calculation of gradient of worst line: using points (0.16,1.42) and (0.21,1.68) M= = = 5.2 mm =| |= 0.019893899mm 0.00002m Mass of largest sphere = 1.38 10-3kg Volume of sphere = = = 1.79 10-7 m3 Finding : t= = = 318.8298285 Nm-2s =3.2 103 P 3.2 103 0.00002 P slope 0.0058
3

y-value:

= 1.415 1.42s

density of material of spheres =

= 7709.497207kgm-3 = 7.7 103kgm-3

DISSCUSSION Though we were not given the coefficient of viscosity of motor oil that we were using, in this experiment we determined the coefficient of viscosity of oil to be 3.2 103 P which is not consistant with the coefficient of viscosity of oil according to (Giancoli, 2009, p. 358) , 2P. This could be due to the human reaction time error while timing the time of fall of the sphere. To reduce the effects of this error several (6) set of reading were recorded then averages were taken.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Giancoli, D. C. (2009). Physics for Scientists & Engineers with Modern Physics. London: Pearson Education Ltd. Noltinge, B. (1995). Instrumentation Reference Book, Second Edition. London: Reed Educational and Professional Publishing Ltd. Physics Department. (2011). Physics Practical 1.1, Lab Manual. Gaborone.