
[From Middle English, flowing, from Old French fluide, from Latin fluidus, from fluere, to flow.]
fluidity flu·id'i·ty (-ĭd'ĭ-tē) or flu'id·ness n.For more information on fluid, visit Britannica.com.
adjective
Definition: adaptable, changeable
Antonyms: inflexible, stable, unchangeable
adj
Definition: liquid
Antonyms: solid
n
Definition: liquid
Antonyms: solid
A substance that flows when subjected to shear stress. Gases and liquids are fluids with similar mechanical properties.
My illness is due to my doctor's insistence that I drink milk, a whitish fluid they force down helpless babies.
— W.C. Fields (1879-1946).
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| fluid mosaic model, fluid, fluence rate | |
| fluor, fluor+, fluorenylmethoxycarbonyl |
1. a liquid or gas; any liquid of the body.
2. composed of molecules which freely change their relative positions without separation of the mass.

| This article does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (April 2009) |
| Continuum mechanics |
|---|
In physics, a fluid is a substance that continually deforms (flows) under an applied shear stress. Fluids are a subset of the phases of matter and include liquids, gases, plasmas and, to some extent, plastic solids.
In common usage, "fluid" is often used as a synonym for "liquid", with no implication that gas could also be present. For example, "brake fluid" is hydraulic oil and will not perform its required function if there is gas in it. This colloquial usage of the term is also common in medicine and in nutrition ("take plenty of fluids").
Liquids form a free surface (that is, a surface not created by the container) while gases do not. The distinction between solids and fluid is not entirely obvious. The distinction is made by evaluating the viscosity of the substance. Silly Putty can be considered to behave like a solid or a fluid, depending on the time period over which it is observed. It is best described as a viscoelastic fluid. There are many examples of substances proving difficult to classify. A particularly interesting one is pitch, as demonstrated in the pitch drop experiment currently running at the University of Queensland.
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Fluids display properties such as:
These properties are typically a function of their inability to support a shear stress in static equilibrium.
Solids can be subjected to shear stresses, and to normal stresses—both compressive and tensile. In contrast, ideal fluids can only be subjected to normal, compressive stress which is called pressure. Real fluids display viscosity and so are capable of being subjected to low levels of shear stress.
In a solid, shear stress is a function of strain, but in a fluid, shear stress is a function of strain rate. A consequence of this behavior is Pascal's law which describes the role of pressure in characterizing a fluid's state.
Depending on the relationship between shear stress, and the rate of strain and its derivatives, fluids can be characterized as one of the following:
The behavior of fluids can be described by the Navier–Stokes equations—a set of partial differential equations which are based on:
The study of fluids is fluid mechanics, which is subdivided into fluid dynamics and fluid statics depending on whether the fluid is in motion.
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Dansk (Danish)
n. - væske, flydende legeme
adj. - flydende, væskeformig, væske-, ubestemt
idioms:
Nederlands (Dutch)
vloeistof, vloeibaar, soepel, beweeglijk, meteen in baar geld om te zetten, klinkende munt
Français (French)
n. - (Biol) liquide, (Chim, Tech) fluide
adj. - (gén) liquide, (Chim, Tech) fluide, vague, fluide (un style)
idioms:
Deutsch (German)
n. - Flüssigkeit
adj. - flüssig
idioms:
Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - ρευστό, υγρό
adj. - υγρός, ρευστός, ρέων, ευμετάβλητος, ασταθής
idioms:
Italiano (Italian)
liquido, fluido
idioms:
Português (Portuguese)
n. - fluido (m)
adj. - fluido (m), líquido (m)
idioms:
Русский (Russian)
жидкость, текучая среда, неустойчивый, подвижной
idioms:
Español (Spanish)
n. - líquido, fluido
adj. - líquido, fluido, inestable, cambiadizo
idioms:
Svenska (Swedish)
n. - icke fast kropp (fys.), fluidum
adj. - flytande, obestämd, likvid
中文(简体)(Chinese (Simplified))
液体, 流体, 分泌液, 流动的, 不安定的, 可改变的
idioms:
中文(繁體)(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 液體, 流體, 分泌液
adj. - 流動的, 不安定的, 可改變的
idioms:
한국어 (Korean)
n. - 유체, 유동체
adj. - 유동성의
日本語 (Japanese)
adj. - 流動する, 流動性の, 流動的な
n. - 流動体, 流体
idioms:
العربيه (Arabic)
(الاسم) مادة سائله أو مائعه (صفه) سائل , مائع
עברית (Hebrew)
n. - גז, נוזל, הפרשה נוזלית
adj. - משתנה, גמיש, נוזלי, לא-מוצק
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