Shear rate

Okay kiddo, let me explain shear rate. Have you ever played with silly putty or clay before? When you mold it, it stretches and deforms. Well, when we talk about shear rate, we're talking about the way a material (like silly putty) deforms or changes shape when we push it or move it around.

So, imagine you have a piece of silly putty in front of you. If you just hold it still, nothing happens. But if you push it with your fingers, it starts to stretch and change shape. The amount that it changes depends on how hard you push and how fast you move your fingers. The faster you move your fingers, the more the silly putty is going to stretch and deform.

The rate at which the silly putty is changing shape is called the shear rate. We use this term when we're talking about a lot of different materials and substances, not just silly putty. It helps us understand how things move and behave in different situations.

For example, if we were testing the flow of a liquid like honey, we might measure the shear rate to see how quickly the liquid is flowing and how much it is deforming as it moves through a pipe. Scientists and engineers use shear rate to understand the behavior of lots of different materials, from plastics and metals to blood and other bodily fluids.

So, just remember: shear rate is all about how much a material changes shape when we push or move it around. It's like how silly putty stretches when you play with it!