liquid
"An analogy might be that a liquid is like the people walking in one direction down a busy sidewalk, while a liquid crystal is like a marching band."
"Liquid is like Kryptonite for the iPhone. It comes in all forms and especially here in Seattle, in the form of rain. (Not to mention coffee.) If you ever take your iPhone into the Genius Bar at your local Apple store, the very first thing they'll do is shine a little light into the phone to check for liquid damage. If they see it, they say, "Sorry, it's out of warranty." Liquid damage is the main cause of a voided warranty. "
"Liquids have a constant volume at constant temperature but do not have a constant shape. In this regard, a liquid is like a gas. However, as far as the intermolecular distance is concerned, there is a large difference between liquids and gases."
"In a sense, a liquid is like a very fine powder made of particles with on the order of 10-20 molecules each. However, unlike a fine powder, the particles are constantly trading molecules as bonds break and reform throughout the liquid.
Another analogy is that a liquid is a gas whose molecules are held in close proximity by the external pressure - the pressure of the air. And in fact, the boiling point of a liquid and the melting point of a solid both depend on the external pressure. There are no liquids in a vacuum."
"A solid is like the rock we used: definite shape, volume and mass. It was hard in the hand. A liquid is like water: no definite shape, definite volume and mass. Flour behaves much like water in some ways but not in others."
"A liquid is like a gas in that its molecules move around or 'flow' (that's why both are called 'fluids', while solids aren't)"
"liquid fertilizer is like a shot of espresso. it gives fast green up since it doesn't have to dissolve, but it doesn't leave much available N in the soil."
"A column for liquid chromatography is like a pinball machine designed to let a particular kind of ball pass straight through, while other balls get stuck."
Or a pachinko machine...and the molecules are the balls...
METAMIA is a free database of analogy and metaphor. Anyone can contribute or search. The subject matter can be anything. Science is popular, but poetry is encouraged. The goal is to integrate our fluid muses with the stark literalism of a relational database. Metamia is like a girdle for your muses, a cognitive girdle.