Religious Discrimination? Or just CO Choice?

[NeilLup]

Forgive me for being a real pain, Trevorum. But ketchup is not thixotropic, in fact thixotropic behavior is the exact opposite of ketchup behavior. Thixotropy means that increased shear causes the fluid to become less viscous.

 

Rather, ketchup is a dilatent fluid, sometimes called dilatropic. This type of fluid has the viscosity increase with increasing shear.

 

Sorry for being a nerd.

[Trevorum]

Neil,

ooh, another good word! But I'm not an engineer and I will defer to you on the properties of ketchup. However, you might want to stir up a debate on that wikipedia page - they say it is thixotropic.

[CalicoPenn]

Forgive me for being a bigger nerd but Ketchup is indeed Thixotropic, or more accurately a Pseudoplastic Fluid showing Thixotropic properties. That means its decreases its viscosity with an increasing shear rate. In other words, it becomes more fluid as it is shaken.

 

A Dilatant Fluid increases its viscosity with an increasing shear rate - an increase in viscosity means the fluid gets thicker. A good example of this would be a corn starch/water mixture. The more you shake it, the thicker the fluid becomes.

 

The key is to remember that an Increase in Viscosity means a Decrease in Fluidity and a Decrease in Viscosity means an Increase in Fluidity. High viscosity liquids are thicker and slower running than low viscosity liquids.

 

One of the highest viscosity liquids known to man, if not the highest, is Glass. Glass is not, despite appearances to the contrary, a solid. Glass is a liquid. It continues to flow even when set into its "final" form. It just flows very, very (very, very - can't type in enough very's) slowly. A great place to see an example of this is in Boston, at some of the 200+ year old houses in the Back Bay. If you can find an original window, you'll see that the glass pane is thicker at the bottom than it is at the top.

 

And I'll take Star Trek Technobabble for $1,000 please Alex.

 

Calico

 

 

 

[packsaddle]

In my courses this topic comes up once every semester. I have always enjoyed this video. Now just imagine if we had this setup for a cub scout pack. Just imagine: