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Most people know that if you mix cornflour with water it creates a liquid that if a force is acted upon it it solidify for an instant then returns to a liquid state. will we be able to create a gas than can 1 be contained or produced easy in a set area and 2 that can be carried easy.To act like a non Newtonian fluid for example:

If a soldier was in a skirmish and had no cover, the soldier could deploy this gas surrounding him, and acting like a bullet proof shield. The bullet would hit the gas and the gas would (were the bullet hit) become solid suddenly both stopping the bullet and protecting the user

Is this possible ?

user27394
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1 Answers1

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The problem is that gas molecules are too far apart to interact strongly. In fact the majority of gases at normal conditions behave like ideal gases i.e. the interactions between gas molecules are effectively zero.

The liquid you mention, oobleck, is non-Newtonian because it contains solid particles that interact strongly with each other. Generically, non-Newtonian behaviour is due to the sort of strong interactions that are typical of liquids but entirely absent in gases. A gas would not be useful as a bullet proof shield unless you compressed it to the point where the molecules started interacting strongly, and of course by that point it would be a liquid not a gas.

John Rennie
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