Why is oil thicker than water?

Answer 1

Oil change temperature faster than?æ water because it has lower specific heat capacity as compared to water. Specific heat capacity?æ is the amount of heat energy required to rise the temperature of a?æunit mass of substance by one degree Celsius.

Answer 2

Crude oil, and vegatable oil are both thicker than water (have higher viscosity) because of its molecular weight. Water only has a molecular weight of 18. Oil is considerably higher than this.

Motor Oil on the other hand, has polymers and additives deliberately added to ensure the viscosity is higher. This allows for better lubrication of engine parts. If the oil was too thin, it would fall of moving parts causing a massive increase of friction due to loss of lubrication. The result would be heavy wear on the engine parts.

Answer 3

it's hard to measure the boiling point of oil. The reason is that well before it reaches its boiling point, oil will start to smoke. This is called the 'smoke point'. The smoke points for some common cooking oils are here:

Safflower - 510 F (266 C)

Soybean - 495 F (257 C)

Corn - 475 F (246 C)

Peanut - 440 F (227 C)

Sesame - 420 F (216 C)

Olive - 375 F (191 C)

The boiling point estimates that I've found are pretty sketchy, but a fair estimate for soybean oil (most cheap cooking oil is soybean oil) is about 300 C (or 572 F).

You can compare this to the boiling point of water, which is 100 C (or 212 F). The boiling point of a liquid is the temperature where the liquid will change into a gas. The reason that different liquids boil at different temperatures is because of the chemical bonds that hold them together. So when I say that oil has a higher boiling point than water, what I am actually saying is that the chemical bonds that hold oil together are stronger than the ones holding water together - it takes more heat to break them apart. The main reason for this is that the oil molecules are much bigger, so each one has more surface to stick to the other ones.

So what does this mean in real life? Let's say you took a pan of oil and a pan of water and put them both on the stove. Then you turn the stove on to heat them both up at the same rate. Once they get up to 100 degrees C, the water will start to boil. And around 257 degrees C, you'll see the oil start to smoke. But you'll have to get all the way to 300 degrees C before the oil will boil. So the water boils first and the oil last.

Answer 4

Oil is thicker than water because the molecules in oil are typically larger and more complex than those in water. This leads to stronger intermolecular forces in oil, making it more viscous and resistant to flow compared to water. Additionally, oil is hydrophobic, meaning it does not mix well with water, further contributing to its thicker consistency.

Answer 5

Because it has a lower specific heat capacity than water.

Answer 6

Oil has a higher temperature than water when heated because it has a high burning point. Water boils at 200 degrees Fahrenheit while canola oil is doubt that.

Answer 7

The enthalpy of vaporization is higher.