# What liquid has the lowest/highest viscosity?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-liquid-has-the-lowest-highest-viscosity/106478>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [April 30, 2002, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-liquid-has-the-lowest-highest-viscosity/106478 "2002-04-30T15:21:39Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![easy\_e](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/eb8c5e/32.png) [@easy\_e](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/easy_e)\
**Post date:** [May 1, 2002, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-liquid-has-the-lowest-highest-viscosity/106478/21 "2002-05-01T15:41:46Z")

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**istara** , in short, yes. In one of my chemical engineering courses, our professor gave us an article that explained that it would take longer than the current age of the universe for glass to flow that much. The window-makers probably just installed the panes so the thicker edge would be pointed down. Unfortunatly, we don’t have many “how to” books from that time period to confirm the practice.

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**Author:** ![Waverly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/57b2e6/32.png) [@Waverly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Waverly)\
**Post date:** [May 1, 2002, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-liquid-has-the-lowest-highest-viscosity/106478/22 "2002-05-01T16:06:07Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by istara \*  
> \*\*What’s it like stirring Mercury? It looks quite blobby and jelly-like.
> 
> And the glass-not-really-a-liquid-thing: does this mean my physics teacher who told me that ancient church windows were thicker at the bottom than the top because of the liquid “settling down” was wrong? \*\*

_sob_ Yes, and he should have his credentials revoked. Follow the link given earlier or search this forum to find this myth debunked many times.

Giraffe: I was trying to be good naturedly obnoxious, if that makes sense. Sorry to have appeared to get on your case. Please note that the T[sub]g[/sub] does give you a non-arbitrary point of reference for the phase change.

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**Author:** ![MonkeyMensch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@MonkeyMensch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MonkeyMensch)\
**Post date:** [May 1, 2002, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-liquid-has-the-lowest-highest-viscosity/106478/23 "2002-05-01T16:28:17Z")

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As for applications for superfluids: I used to work for a gas distributor. Every once in a while we would ship some liquid He in little canteen-sized cylinders to a local university (I think UCSD, but it’s been a while.) Anyway, the word was that it was used to verify _absolutely_ leak-free vessels and tubing for nuclear/radioactive research. Since the He was a superfluid, any leak, however small, would be apparent as the liquid He could flow through holes of nearly atomic dimensions.

It was a while ago, so if any has a correction please chime in.

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