13 upvotes, 1 direct replies (showing 1)
View submission: Is sand a liquid???
It’s interesting and complicated, because the same material — say, sand grains in air — can transition from behaving like a fluid to a solid depending on the density of sand particles and the forces driving the flow.
There’s a sudden transition called the “jamming transition”: as you add more sand to air, it behaves like a more viscous fluid until suddenly the grains lock together and form a strong network that doesn’t move at all.
https://physics.aps.org/articles/v4/86
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Granular_material
Comment by petripooper at 17/01/2024 at 05:59 UTC
3 upvotes, 1 direct replies
Ahh i see. Sand in air sounds more like a suspension than a "phase" of a pure substance (like liquid). Maybe comparing it to a liquid is not the best way to think about it.