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A Capillary Flow Analogy

  • Page ID
    2964
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    Chemical Concepts Demonstrated

    Demonstration

    Capillary tubing is attached a buret filled with water and clamped in a horizontal position.

    Use a stop watch and record time vs. volume measurements as the water flows out of the buret.

    Observations

    Plotting volume versus time yields a slightly curved line. Plotting the log of the volume versus the time yields a straight line.


    A graph showing a first order reaction plotted as volume as a function of time. The curve shows that volume decreases as time goes on.

    Explanation

    Because the log of the volume versus the time yields a straight line when plotted, the capillary flow appears to be first-order.

    Contributors


    A Capillary Flow Analogy is shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by George Bodner.

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