Is cloth a solid or a liquid?

[wasteofo2]

Well? Is something like a shirt considered a solid, even though it can easily take the shape of it's container?

[Janitor]

My instincts say 'solid.' Thin gold leaf is likewise very flexible, but also solid in my book.

[GoneRogue]

Think of it this way, if you try to cram a shirt, or any material, in a container there will still be air pockets, thus not complete conformity. Also, the molecules of cloth are locked and cannot freely move about and slide past each other. Vote: Solid

[thunderfvck]

Solid!

A liquid is free flowing.

Here's a brain buster:

Smoke, a solid, or liquid, or gas?

OUUU. This one is rather interesting!

[rayjohn01]

Well I vote a complex malleable porous solid.

[Gokul43201]

Cloth is most definitely solid.

Smoke is primarily composed of micron sized carbon particles - these are solid.

[Njorl]

Smoke is solid. It is tiny solid particles suspended in air.

I suppose there could be liquid smoke - a by-product of combustion that takes the form of tiny liquid droplets suspended in air, but I am not familiar with anything that would produce it.

Gasses could never be considered smoke, since all gasses are infinitely miscible.

Njorl

[Monique]

More precisely smoke is a colloid: mixture of solid and gas or liquid and gas, basically a mixture of components in different phases.

Example of liquid smoke: steam coming out of the tea cooker :tongue2: basically a mist (mist is a colloid).

[Gokul43201]

Addressing the original question, the ability to take the shape of the container is a poor way to characterize the state of matter. The distinction is made on the basis of inter-atomic/inter-molecular interactions. The strength of these interactions is manifest in macroscopic properties such as viscosity.

[Monique]

Well? Is something like a shirt considered a solid, even though it can easily take the shape of it's container?
What happens if the container is bigger than the shirt.. it won't take take the shape of the container..

[Tiiba]

I suppose there could be liquid smoke - a by-product of combustion that takes the form of tiny liquid droplets suspended in air, but I am not familiar with anything that would produce it.
Hydrogen in oxygen?