The boiling points, surface tensions, and viscosities of water and several alcohols are as shown below: (b) How do you explain the fact that propanol and ethylene glycol have similar molecular weights (60 versus 62 amu), yet the viscosity of ethylene glycol is more than 10 times larger than propa- nol?

Video transcript

Hey everyone, we're given a table with the physical properties of several alcohols were asked, which best explains why glycerol has the higher values for its physical properties. First looking at our table, we can see that glycerol has three hydroxyl groups, and since glycerol has three hydroxyl groups, this means that we have higher hydrogen bonding, which means it has greater inter molecular forces. And this also means that we will have a higher melting point, a higher boiling point and greater viscosity. So this is going to be our final answer now, I hope that made sense and let us know if you have any questions.