What is the difference between an extremely thick liquid and a solid? At which point does the difference stop mattering, it at all?
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>What is the difference between an extremely thick liquid and a solid?
None. Almost every solid will flow if you have enough of it and apply enough stress. [Ice](https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-022-00385-x), [rocks](https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691644929/viscosity-of-the-earths-mantle), [steel](https://www.jstor.org/stable/24100561#metadata_info_tab_contents), even [diamond](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0925963500004003).
Size and scale really matter. We think of molasses as a very thick viscous fluid, but if you have enough of it … Dozens of people were killed in the [Great Molasses Flood](https://www.history.com/news/great-molasses-flood-science) in Boston in 1919, when a burst storage tank released a wave of molasses that traveled up to 35 miles an hour, far too fast to outrun.
The only real difference between a liquid and a solid is how much you have, how strong the forces on it are, and how long you’re willing to wait for it to move.
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