• DOI:10.1038/141074a0
• Corpus ID: 3997900

Viscosity of Liquid Helium below the λ-Point

@article{Kapitza1938ViscosityOL,
  title={Viscosity of Liquid Helium below the $\lambda$-Point},
  author={Piotr Leonidovich Kapitza},
  journal={Nature},
  year={1938},
  volume={141},
  pages={74-74}
}

• P. Kapitza
• Published 1 January 1938
• Physics
• Nature

THE abnormally high heat conductivity of helium II below the λ-point, as first observed by Keesom, suggested to me the possibility of an explanation in terms of convection currents. This explanation would require helium II to have an abnormally low viscosity; at present, the only viscosity measurements on liquid helium have been made in Toronto1, and showed that there is a drop in viscosity below the λ-point by a factor of 3 compared with liquid helium at normal pressure, and by a factor of 8 compared with the value just above the λ-point. In these experiments, however, no check was made to ensure that the motion was laminar, and not turbulent.