Why can air be compressed but liquids can’t?
In: Physics
Liquids can be compressed, but significantly less than air (and all gases) can be compressed. It’s to do with the molecule structure. Compression forces molecules close together. In a solid, all these molecules are tightly packed together. So you can’t really compress, because there’s no room. In a liquid, there’s a bit more room, so you can compress it a little bit. Gases on the other hand have a lot more area to move around, and so you can compress them a lot more than liquids.
Latest Answers