Although the phenomenon of viscosity becomes attenuated with hydrolysis of the gelatinized polysaccharide, the increasing number of fragments seems to lessen the effect of high viscosity; this may contribute in part to the hyperbolic curve tendency as the rate of increase in product (P) formation (∆∂[P]/∆∂t) decreases. This is generally regarded as a crowding effect . As shown in expressed by the observation that the total number of maltose units per molar mass (64.54 exp. (+6)) of insoluble potato starch is ≈ 1.89 exp. (+5), which is > any of the number of fragments.