Could one swim/dig out from the bottom of a 15-20ft deep pool of jello (assuming you could hold your breath for a minute or two...or ten)? [more inside]
posted by whatgorilla on Sep 12, 2006 - 18 answers

ViscosityFilter: Ceteris paribus, will thicker soup (clam chowder) take longer to reach room temperature than chicken noodle, assuming they were both heated to the same core temperature? [more inside]
posted by disillusioned on Jan 1, 2006 - 10 answers

I've occasionally heard it said that "For a bacteria, moving through water is like a person trying to wade through liquid concrete" (or jello, or mud, or whatever...) What is a good layman's explanation for this scaling of viscosity? Is it simply that at the scale of a bacterium, the strength of the intermolecular forces in a fluid are more comparable to the strength that a bacterium has to push itself through the fluid, or is there something deeper to it?
posted by badstone on Jun 28, 2004 - 3 answers