Liquids and gases can flow and are, therefore, called fluids. It is this property that distinguishes liquids and gases from solids in a basic way. Fluids are everywhere around us. Earth has an envelope of air and two-thirds of its surface is covered with water. Unlike a solid, a fluid has no definite shape of its own. Solids and liquids have a fixed volume, whereas a gas fills the entire volume of its container.
The volume of solid, liquid or gas depends on the stress or pressure acting on it. When we talk about fixed volume of solid or liquid, we mean its volume under atmospheric pressure. The difference between gases and solids or liquids is that for solids or liquids the change in volume due to change of external pressure is rather small. In other words, solids and liquids have much lower compressibility as compared to gases.
Shear stress can change the shape of a solid keeping its volume fixed. The key property of fluids is that they offer very little resistance to shear stress; their shape changes by application of very small shear stress. The shearing stress of fluids is about million times smaller than that of solids.
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