Convert dynamic viscosity units — Pascal-second, Poise, centipoise, lb/(ft·s) and more.
| Unit | Name | Value |
|---|---|---|
| Pa·s | Pascal-second | 0.001 |
| P | Poise | 0.01 |
| lb/(ft·s) | Pound/(Foot·Second) | 0.00067197076 |
| kg/(m·s) | Kilogram/(Meter·Second) | 0.001 |
| mPa·s | Millipascal-second | 1 |
Formula: Millipascal-second = Poise × 100
Multiply any Poise value by 100 to get Millipascal-second.
Reverse: Poise = Millipascal-second × 0.01
Water reference (20°C): 0.01002 P = 1.002 mPa·s
Values at ~20°C unless noted. Factor: 1 P = 100 mPa·s
| Poise (P) | Millipascal-second (mPa·s) | Fluid |
|---|---|---|
| 0.00018 P | 0.018 mPa·s | Air (20°C) |
| 0.01002 P | 1.002 mPa·s | Water (20°C) |
| 0.012 P | 1.2 mPa·s | Ethanol |
| 0.035 P | 3.5 mPa·s | Blood (37°C) |
| 0.65 P | 65 mPa·s | SAE 10W motor oil |
| 0.84 P | 84 mPa·s | Olive oil |
| 2 P | 200 mPa·s | Maple syrup |
| 3 P | 300 mPa·s | SAE 30 motor oil |
| 50 P | 5000 mPa·s | Honey |
| 500 P | 5e+04 mPa·s | Ketchup |
| 1000 P | 1e+05 mPa·s | Molten glass (700°C) |
| 2500 P | 2.5e+05 mPa·s | Peanut butter |
| 3e+05 P | 3e+07 mPa·s | Tar (room temp) |
| 2.300e+09 P | 2.300e+11 mPa·s | Pitch (20°C) |
1 P = 100 mPa·s.
Water at 20°C ≈ 1 cP = 1 mPa·s = 0.001 Pa·s = 0.01 P. Use as reference.
Multiply result by 0.01 to recover the original P value.
Specifies oil viscosity in cP or mPa·s for formulation and quality control of lubricants.
Uses Pa·s and cP for pipeline flow calculations, pump design, and mixing operations.
Measures sauce, syrup, and dough viscosity in cP for texture optimization and process control.
Controls drug formulation viscosity in mPa·s for injectables, topical creams, and oral suspensions.
Specifies paint, ink, and adhesive viscosity in cP for application equipment compatibility.
Characterizes polymer melt viscosity in Pa·s for extrusion and injection molding process design.
The Poise (P) is the CGS unit of dynamic viscosity, equal to 1 dyne·s/cm² = 0.1 Pa·s. It was named after Jean Louis Marie Poiseuille, the French physician who first quantified viscous flow through tubes (1838–1840), establishing what became Poiseuille's law of flow.
The Poise was the standard viscosity unit before SI adoption. Water at 20°C = 0.01002 P ≈ 0.01 P = 1 cP. The centipoise became preferred because it gives water a value of ~1, making comparisons intuitive. Many older fluid data tables use Poise.
Interesting fact: Poiseuille was a physician, not a physicist, and he developed his viscosity measurements to understand blood flow through capillaries. His 1838 paper on capillary flow remains the foundation of microfluidics and cardiovascular fluid dynamics.
Millipascal-second (mPa·s) equals exactly 1 centipoise (cP) = 0.001 Pa·s. It is the preferred SI notation for the centipoise, used in pharmaceutical, food, and chemical industries that require SI-compliant units while retaining the convenient water = 1 value.
mPa·s = cP numerically, making conversion trivial. EU pharmacopoeias and food regulations increasingly specify viscosity in mPa·s. Pharmaceutical injections must be within specific mPa·s ranges for safe administration. Many modern viscometer readouts display in mPa·s.
Interesting fact: The equivalence cP = mPa·s is exact by definition. The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) recommends mPa·s as the preferred SI expression of centipoise — allowing modern data tables to be SI-compliant while remaining numerically compatible with decades of cP data.
Dynamic viscosity measures a fluid's resistance to flow. The SI unit is Pa·s (= kg/(m·s)); cP and mPa·s are numerically identical and most widely used; P (Poise) is the CGS unit. Key anchor: water at 20°C ≈ 1 cP = 1 mPa·s = 0.001 Pa·s = 0.01 P.
Exact factor: 1 P = 100 mPa·s. Reverse: 1 mPa·s = 0.01 P.
All conversions use IEEE 754 double-precision arithmetic, accurate to at least 8 significant figures.