How can rubber so easily compress if solids are supposed to be harder than liquids to compress?

Question

How can rubber so easily compress if solids are supposed to be harder than liquids to compress?

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Answer 1

Because you’re talking about a structure, not a homogenous material of a single state.

If you take something like foam rubber, it’s a material that contains both solids and gasses. The rubber is a solid and provides a flexible structure. The gas trapped inside that rubber is a highly compressible gas. If you “compress” it, you’re compressing the gas, but the solid component is mostly just changing it’s shape not reducing its volume.

This is different than say, just a chunk of solid rubber, which can bend and deform but won’t readily compress.