LIQUID OR SOLID?
 

There is not always a defined answer to the question, “Is this substance a solid or a liquid?” It can depend on the observer’s point of reference. Some substances can be considered solid in the short-term time sense but liquid in the long-term sense. An example is the mantle of the Earth, the layer of rock between the crust and the core. In a long-term time sense, pieces of the crust, known as tectonic plates, float around on top of the mantle like scum on the surface of a hot vat of liquid. This is manifested as continental drift and is apparent when the Earth is evaluated over periods of millions of years. From one moment (as we perceive it) to the next, however, and even from hour to hour or from day to day, the crust seems rigidly fixed on the mantle. The mantle behaves like a solid in the short-term sense but like a liquid in the long-term sense.
Imagine that we could turn ourselves into creatures whose life spans were measured in trillions (units of 10¹²) of years so that 1 million years seemed to pass like a moment. Then, from our point of view, Earth’s mantle would behave like a liquid with low viscosity, just as water seems to us in our actual state of time awareness. If we could become creatures whose entire lives lasted only a tiny fraction of a second, then liquid water would seem to take eons to get out of a glass tipped on its side, and we would conclude that this substance was solid, or a else a liquid with extremely high viscosity.
The way we define the state of a substance can depend on the temperature, and it also can depend on the time frame over which the substance is observed.

مواضيع ذات صلة

Properties of matter

Matter is made of atoms

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GAS PRESSURE

GASES IN OUTER SPACE

GASES NEAR A PLANET

DIFFUSION IN SMALL CONTAINERS

GAS DENSITY

PASCAL’S LAW FOR INCOMPRESSIBLE LIQUIDS

PRESSURE IN LIQUIDS

MEASURING LIQUID VOLUME

DENSITY OF LIQUIDS