Is it possible to compress liquids ?

Question

I belive it is not possible but would like to confirm this. Thank you.

Answer 1

Yes, but for most liquids, not very much - i.e. a lot of pressure is required to produce a only slight decrease in volume (= increase in density).

The US Navy some years back made a study of the density of water (including salt water) at very high pressures, presumably relevant to submarines. This may be among the most detailed information available, for any liquid. But you should find, in any scientific library, books of physical tables that give at least an indicative value for the compressibility of a number of liquids.

Answer 2

Whenever you hear that a liquid is "incompressible", the term is being used loosely or an approximation is being made. Everything is compressible to a degree. Water compresses to only a very small amount at the kinds of pressures normally encountered in pumps and such, or even at the bottom of the sea. Using special equipment like a diamond anvil, however, a million atmospheres can be produced that will reduce water to half its standard volume, or there abouts.

Answer 3

I believe that it is possible to compress anything but there is an extent to how much you can compress it. We know that in solids, molecules are held together by intermolecular forces, in liquids you have some intermolecular forces and some molecules are free and in gases there are little or even no intermolecular forces.
Since your question is on liquids, we'll focus on liquids.
Since some of the molecures are free of intermlolecular forces, there are bound to be more space between the molecules, hence you are bound to be able to compress that liquid by getting rid of that 'extra space' between the free molecules. So therefore you can compress liquids, but not very significant when compared to compression of gases.

Answer 4

I agree with you. The diameter of the pipe is too large for the surface tension and viscosity of water to sustain a true plug flow, which is required to empty the tube by blowing it upward from the lower end. What will happen is that the air will channelize along the upper half of the cross section in the 45 degree slope and escape. If power is not a concern and a virtual infinite supply of air at a high enough pressure is available, it may be possible to achieve a non steady state blow out. The flow dynamics will be quite different. You will have to use the kind of equipment used in supersonic wind tunnels. Power consumption for a single blow out can be 10000 KWHr.

Answer 5

I'd be interested to know if you were taught this in school.

Imagine trapping some liquid in a cylinder between the end of the cylinder and a sliding piston. Turn it upright and stand on the piston.

The pressure exerted by the liquid on the piston must increase - to balance the wieght. So, if the liquid is imagined to be made of particles these must be pattering more frequently against the piston.

The only way for this to happen is for the space occupied by each particle to have got less; so it bounces against its neighbours more often. In other words the liquid must have been compressed.

I would not know if there is some weird quantum mechanical fluid where this does not apply. Incidentally it would be closely analogous to touching something with a hot object and the something not changing its temperature.

Answer 6

Ideal liquids are incompressible. Of course, no liquid is ideal, so some slight compression might be possible. However, for the purpose of modeling physical systems, it is accurate enough to assume most working liquids (water, hydraulic oil, etc) are incompressible.

Answer 7

Yes, it is possible, but liquids are very hard to compress. Water, for example, is as difficult to compress as many types of rocks.

Answer 8

It depends a bit upon the liquid, but in general liquids are more or less incompressible with any pressure which can currently be produced on Earth.

Answer 9

you can turn some of them into solids,,,,,which is the ultimate compression

Answer 10

a certain extent not much though