States of Matter

While teaching science to my 9th Standard kid, I realised that there are 5 states of matter - solid, liquid, gas, (these three I already knew), plasma and Bose-Einstein Condensate. Solids have constant mass, shape and volume. Liquids have constant mass and volume and take the shape of the container that is used to hold them. Gases have only their mass constant.

My wife asked me "then what are we"? This set me thinking! Our mass is constantly varying as is evident from our bathroom scale. Our shape is also constantly changing from slightly oval to almost perfectly spherical depending on the success or failure of our exercise-diet regimen. As such our volume is also changing. I realise that we are an altogether different state of matter. I am tentatively calling it the human-state of matter!