You can see for yourself how this works by testing how long it takes for a thermometer buried in sand or soil to reach the temperature of surrounding air. Share data with other people around the world and discover some surprising patterns. In this experiment we check the porosity of gravel, sand and silt, the raw materials that sandstone is made of. One of these is buoyancy, the ability of a liquid to partially support the weigh of an object, in this case, the steel drill pipe. This experiment will help you see how this works.
Some substances have the unusual property of being able to change form.
A mixture of cornstarch and water is such a substance. It changes viscosity depending on whether or not it is agitated. Investigate for yourself and see how it behaves. Then, once it gets going it flows quite freely. The property at work here is called thixotropy.