liquid
Sign in to savethumb|300px|The formation of a spherical drop (liquid)|droplet of liquid [[water minimizes the surface area, which is the natural result of surface tension in liquids.]]
AI overview
A liquid is a state of matter where molecules are loosely bound together, allowing the substance to flow and take the shape of its container while maintaining a relatively fixed volume. Liquids matter because they're essential to life and everyday processes—water, for example, naturally forms droplets due to surface tension, a property that affects everything from how liquids behave in nature to how they're used in technology.
AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.
Article
38 sectionsContents
- Examples
- Properties
- Volume
- Pressure
- Buoyancy
- Surfaces
- Flow
- Sound propagation
- Microscopic structure
- Short-range ordering
- Energy and entropy
- No small parameter
- Role of quantum mechanics
- Dynamic phenomena
- Experimental methods
- Phase transitions
- Solutions
- Applications
- Lubrication
- Solvation
- Cooling
- Cooking
- Distillation
- Hydraulics
- Liquid metals
- Miscellaneous
- Prediction of liquid properties
- Macroscopic
- Empirical correlations
- Thermodynamic potentials
- Hydrodynamics
- Mesoscopic
- Microscopic
- Classical molecular dynamics
- Ab initio (quantum) molecular dynamics
- See also
- Notes
- References
thumb|300px|The formation of a spherical drop (liquid)|droplet of liquid [[water minimizes the surface area, which is the natural result of surface tension in liquids.]]
Liquid is a state of matter with a definite volume but no fixed shape. When confined in a container and subjected to a force such as gravity, liquids will adapt to the internal shape of the container in the direction of the force. Liquids are nearly incompressible, maintaining their volume even under pressure. The density of a liquid is usually close to that of a solid, and much higher than that of a gas. Liquids are a form of condensed matter alongside solids, and a form of fluid alongside gases.