Soil and Sand are liquids.

[La Femme Rosé]

A liquid can generally be classified as matter that takes the form of its container, and are typically affected by gravity in the sense that they flow when presented with a downwards slope. As such, soil and sand are liquids, as they take the form of their containers, and will flow down a downward slope.

In order to further enforce my theory, I have created the "Prank Test". The way it works is by creating a hypothetical situation in which you were to throw said matter at an unsuspecting individual and test what happens to the matter when hitting said person.

The evidence of matter being a solid are as follows:
If you throw something at someone's face and it maintains its shape, caves the guy's skull in, or shatters into smaller pieces, it is a solid.
If you throw something at someone's face and it splashes, or gets them wet, it is a liquid.
If you throw something at someone's face and it dissipates before it hits the person, it's a gas. If you throw it and they die, it's nerve gas.
If you ARE the something being thrown at someone's face, you are Thaumiel.

In this case, if you were to throw soil or sand at someone, it would splash and either coat them in soil/sand (making them wet), or hit the floor (making the floor wet). Therefore soil and sand are liquids.

 

[Kw1ll]

water is not wet

 

[Mickle]

T

water is not wet

This is true, water makes things wet but is not wet itself

 

[Jules]

water is not wet

Water is hella wet

 

[Mickle]

Water is hella wet

wrong, refer to first post.

 

[Jules]

wrong, refer to first post.

Water is wet

 

[MazuzaM]

Something is classified a fluid because of viscosity. Viscosity is the ability of something being able of go through a "pipe" and being passed through by a solid. The greater the viscosity is the harder it is to perform those abilities, this is why gaseous material is considered a liquid. Also a liquid has it's own volume but takes the shape of it's container.

 

[ShadowPL]

Something is classified a liquid because of viscosity. Viscosity is the ability of something being able of go through a "pipe" and being passed through by a solid. The greater the viscosity is the harder it is to perform those abilities, this is why gaseous material is considered a liquid.

well said enzonarando

 

[Eisenhower]

Consider a large pile of boulders, sitting precariously on a cliff face next to a mountain road. Are the boulders solid?

To me, as to any reasonable person, I would say that, “Yes, the boulders are pretty solid.”

Now, lets go roll a big boulder from higher up the mountain, into our pile of boulders, while we have a big dump truck sitting on the road beneath. As the boulder smashes into the pile, the pile goes careening off the cliff and pours into the back of the dump truck. Are the boulders now liquid, because you were able to pour them into a big cup?(Let’s be honest, the back of a dump truck is basically a giant cup.)

Again, I would have to say, “The boulders are still solid.”

Let’s do the same thing, but this time, make the boulders a heaping pile of pea gravel instead. Is the pea gravel any less solid than the boulders? “No,” I would say, “it just flows a lot easier since the solid particles are smaller.”

Now, let’s change the pea gravel out for sand. All we did here, was shrink the sizes of the rocks from very large to medium small, to very small. The sand is still essentially rocks, it is just that as the particles are finer and finer in size, they require less and less energy to lift one particle over the top of another particle so it can flow. If you went to lift a boulder over another boulder, we would be exhausted, but if we lifted a single bit of pea gravel over another one, it is quite simple to do.

What we have just discovered by process of our thought experiment, is that solid particles can behave in ways that are somewhat fluid, while not really being a liquid, and that as the particle size decreases, this becomes more and more likely.

Meanwhile, what we refer to as liquids tend to have particle sizes that are so small, that they are really just a bunch of molecules floating around together. To some extent, they will tend to stick together in droplets, rather than separate out into individual particles, like grains of sand do. In actuality, some of the particles in a liquid do separate out from the cup of liquid, and since they are so tiny and lightweight, they can be lifted by some ambient heat in the room and go floating off, but we don’t think of it this way, as we tend to think that the liquid “evaporated”. Under certain conditions, the particles will be concentrated enough in the air, and the temperature will drop, and these particles will clump back together and form droplets. This does not occur for particles of sand or larger dust particles.

The definition of liquid versus solid can thus be a bit tricky to nail down, but generally speaking sand does not have the ability at the temperature that it is pour-able to evaporate or condense, so this seems to be a reasonable way to properly delineate liquid versus solid, though you could also make an argument for particle size that is visible to the naked eye, versus a molecular particle size, as another possible reason why sand is not a liquid.

???

 

[Nirvan]

A liquid can generally be classified as matter that takes the form of its container, and are typically affected by gravity in the sense that they flow when presented with a downwards slope. As such, soil and sand are liquids, as they take the form of their containers, and will flow down a downward slope.

In order to further enforce my theory, I have created the "Prank Test". The way it works is by creating a hypothetical situation in which you were to throw said matter at an unsuspecting individual and test what happens to the matter when hitting said person.

The evidence of matter being a solid are as follows:
If you throw something at someone's face and it maintains its shape, caves the guy's skull in, or shatters into smaller pieces, it is a solid.
If you throw something at someone's face and it splashes, or gets them wet, it is a liquid.
If you throw something at someone's face and it dissipates before it hits the person, it's a gas. If you throw it and they die, it's nerve gas.
If you ARE the something being thrown at someone's face, you are Thaumiel.

In this case, if you were to throw soil or sand at someone, it would splash and either coat them in soil/sand (making them wet), or hit the floor (making the floor wet). Therefore soil and sand are liquids.

a single grain of sand/soil doesnt take the shape of the container but any amount of water does! simple.

 

[Rob Boss]

a single grain of sand/soil doesnt take the shape of the container but any amount of water does! simple.

shut up nirvan

 

[Karl Smith]

Sand is a solid because it comes from grinding up rocks for a long time and is not like water. Soil can be dry and will disperse if you try it at someone like you said but it does not make someone wet. Water and other liquids make people wet.