# Origins of the glass as fluid meme?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origins-of-the-glass-as-fluid-meme/416719>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [August 24, 2007, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origins-of-the-glass-as-fluid-meme/416719 "2007-08-24T02:22:00Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 2

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\
**Post date:** [August 24, 2007, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origins-of-the-glass-as-fluid-meme/416719/21 "2007-08-24T20:51:55Z")

</div>

[QUOTE=Sapo]  
Crude oil. My dad worked on the oil industry. We have plenty of those acrylic blocks with crude samples trapped inside. Some of the heavier ones have been upside down since my childhood (20+ years ago) and they show no signs of wanting to drip down.  
[/QUOTE]  
[Obligatory Wiki link](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pitch_drop_experiment) to a true example of a highly viscous liquid.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Pasta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecccb3/32.png) [@Pasta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pasta)\
**Post date:** [August 24, 2007, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origins-of-the-glass-as-fluid-meme/416719/22 "2007-08-24T21:06:23Z")

</div>

If you choose to define “solid” as what a liquid becomes after passing through a first-order phase transition (complete with a latent heat of fusion), then glass is not a solid, as it doesn’t do that. If you choose to define “solid” as something exhibiting resistance to deformation, then glass is a solid.

Either definition is reasonable, hence the confusion.

Of course, it doesn’t matter much what you call it, so long as the speaker and listener know what glass actually _is_.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Angua](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8baadc/32.png) [@Angua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Angua)\
**Post date:** [August 24, 2007, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origins-of-the-glass-as-fluid-meme/416719/23 "2007-08-24T22:00:09Z")

</div>

[QUOTE=Ludovic]  
[Obligatory Wiki link](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pitch_drop_experiment) to a true example of a highly viscous liquid.  
[/QUOTE]

Preceded by Lord Kelvin’s [pitch staircase](http://eprints.gla.ac.uk/3309/01/G1asgow_Physics_Heritage_final_draft.pdf) (a pdf) in Glasgow, which [was started in 1887](http://www.ilanahalperin.com/new/nomadic_landmass.html).

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Sapo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ec9cab/32.png) [@Sapo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sapo)\
**Post date:** [August 24, 2007, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origins-of-the-glass-as-fluid-meme/416719/24 "2007-08-24T22:58:30Z")

</div>

[QUOTE=Ludovic]  
[Obligatory Wiki link](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pitch_drop_experiment) to a true example of a highly viscous liquid.  
[/QUOTE]

The timeline table makes for riveting reading.

[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origins-of-the-glass-as-fluid-meme/416719.md?page=1)