*sigh* Nothing is ever as cut and dried as you would like. There are two measures of viscosity, dynamic (absolute) and kinematic. The difference between the two is inclusion or exclusion of the material's density. In dynamic terms, the viscosity of mercury and water isn't so different and if water didn't freeze they would be equal at ~ -5 to -10°C. In kinematic terms, mercury's density makes its viscosity much, much lower than water's.
IIRC, its the absolute viscosity that goes into calculating pump flow rates, but don't quote me on that one.
|