Is jelly a solid or a liquid?
It’s a solid as long as it remains cold enough and doesn’t melt, at which point it would be classed as a liquid. A solid retains its shape and resists deformation – it is just a soft and wobbly solid. It can’t be both, because you have defined ‘jelly’ as the object/substance you are interested in. Although it contains solid and liquid phase components, this could only be the answer if you asked the question “are the gelatine and water components of jelly liquids or solids?” (solid and liquid respectively). It is also a gel, but this is a description of its internal structure, not its phase. It isn’t a colloid either (see correction below). CORRECTION: My mistake – it is actually classed as a colloid, but as a suspension of water in a continuous gelatine matrix phase (gel), rather than the other way around as described in another answer (which would be a sol).
