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A liquid is a nearly incompressible fluid that conforms to the shape of its container but retains a nearly constant volume independent of pressure. It is one of the four fundamental states of matter (the others being solid, gas, and plasma), and is the only state with a definite volume but no fixed shape.
In thermodynamics and fluid mechanics, the compressibility (also known as the coefficient of compressibility [1] or, if the temperature is held constant, the isothermal compressibility [2]) is a measure of the instantaneous relative volume change of a fluid or solid as a response to a pressure (or mean stress) change.
Pressure in water and air. Pascal's law applies for fluids. Pascal's principle is defined as: A change in pressure at any point in an enclosed incompressible fluid at rest is transmitted equally and undiminished to all points in all directions throughout the fluid, and the force due to the pressure acts at right angles to the enclosing walls.
Compressible fluid: A fluid that causes volume reduction or density change when pressure is applied to the fluid or when the fluid becomes supersonic. Incompressible fluid: A fluid that does not vary in volume with changes in pressure or flow velocity (i.e., ρ=constant) such as water or oil.
Liquid crystal states have properties intermediate between mobile liquids and ordered solids. Generally, they are able to flow like a liquid, but exhibiting long-range order. For example, the nematic phase consists of long rod-like molecules such as para-azoxyanisole , which is nematic in the temperature range 118–136 °C (244–277 °F). [ 10 ]
As a rough guide, compressible effects can be ignored at Mach numbers below approximately 0.3. For liquids, whether the incompressible assumption is valid depends on the fluid properties (specifically the critical pressure and temperature of the fluid) and the flow conditions (how close to the critical pressure the actual flow pressure becomes).
In engineering, the term fluid encompasses both gases and liquids. Typically, gases are compressible fluids (increasing or decreasing pressure can change the volume occupied by a gas), while liquids are incompressible fluids (applying pressure does not change the volume occupied by the liquid).
Liquids, however, are nearly incompressible, thus their volumes can be often taken as constant. In general, compressibility is defined as the relative volume change of a fluid or solid as a response to a pressure, and may be determined for substances in any phase.