Viscosity (And Why You Need a Multi-Purpose Tool in The Bathroom)

[From Wikipedia]The viscosity of a fluid is a measure of its resistance to gradual deformation by shear stress or tensile stress. For liquids, it corresponds to the informal notion of "thickness". For example, honey has a higher viscosity than water.^[1]

Generally, I think that people most commonly encounter the term "viscosity" on motor oil commercials- maintaining viscosity at different temperatures to protect your motor components.

But viscosity, for me, brings to mind a toiletry items:  namely lotion and Desitin.

You see, before my husband came into the picture, I, like so many others, would use lotion until it wouldn't come out of the pump any more.

And then, I, like so many others, would take the pump out of the bottom and shake out what I could...thinking that I was getting a great deal more than if I just left it to the pump, who's straw didn't reach the bottom (or corners) of the lotion bottle.

But it was my husband who brought the Swiss Army Knife into the bathroom.

"Why is there a Swiss Army Knife in the bathroom?"

"It's not a Swiss Army Knife."

"Ok, why is the multi-purpose tool in the bathroom?"

"It's what I use to cut open lotion bottles"

And to my look of consternation, my husband showed me how much lotion was still left in the bottle, even after taking it and shaking it.

The reason:  viscosity.

You see, the lotion clings to the side of the bottle and there isn't enough shearing force to move it to the mouth of the bottle, so you end up loosing a ton of lotion.

And manufacturers are getting worse about this- the straws in lotion bottles are getting shorter and their diameter is narrowing so that the last 1/8th of the bottle is still left untouched.

It's a similar story with toothpaste..which is why they say to "squeeze from the bottom", which is frankly ridiculous when the tube fits so perfectly into one's hand.  But in order to get the last bit of toothpaste out of the tube, we resort to laying the tube on a flat surface and "scraping" the contents from the base with the side of a comb...or the multi-purpose tool.  (But I do want to take credit for the idea of keeping a binder clip on flattened, rolled part to prevent the paste from retreating back into the flattened crevasses.)

Desitin (yes, the butt paste) is even worse, particularly if you buy the Extra Strength (which is the original strength, but this way they can say that the 10% zinc oxide is worth more than the "lesser strength" paste).  Anyway, the new plastic tubes of Desitin are not designed for the viscosity of the 10% zinc oxide paste, so you have to kneel on the tube to extrude it.  Haven't found a great solution for that one yet, but I'll keep you posted.  We're too cheap to leave any in the tube.

So, the moral of this story is:  viscosity threat to your pocket book (unless you bring a Swiss Army Knife).