🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1454@jade.BERKELEY.EDU>, dean@ruby.berkeley.edu writes:
> An interesting thing about this definition is that it may be time-dependent
> for real materials: a thick solution of corn starch in water will flow if
> poured slowly (it's a liquid at that timescale) but shatters if hit with a
> hammer (in that case it's a solid).  There is a continuum of behaviors from
> a perfectly elastic solid to a perfectly Newtonian fluid.

Conversely, there are materials which are called "thixotropic" (spelling?),
which are solids if stressed slowly and liquids if stressed quickly. A good
(or should I say, bad) example are certain kinds of mud (or wet ground, as
after a long rain) which, when a small earthquake comes, suddenly liquify
and bury people. Another example is a kind of heavy stucco paint, which
sprays quite tamely through a paint sprayer (liquid), but which as soon as
it lands becomes "solid", allowing one to spray extremely thick, built-up
layers on a vertical wall.

Rob Warnock
Consultant
{amdcad,sun,fortune}!redwood!rpw3