Prophetess Deborah

Reiner M (1964). Phys Today, Jan 62. Reiner quotes the prophetess Deborah in Judges 5 5, even the mountains flowed before the Lord. Thus, solids are really liquids if viewed over a long enough period of time. 

The Deborah number is a dimensionless number used in rheology to characterize how fluid a material is. Even some apparent solids flow if they are observed long enough. The origin of the name, coined by Markus Reiner, is the line The mountains flow before the Lord in a song by the prophetess Deborah recorded in the Bible (Judges 5 5). 

Note This dimensionless ratio is named after the Old Testament prophetess Deborah, who said the mountains flow before the Lord Judges 5 5. 

The ccrm Deborah number was coined l> M. Reiner (sec Physics Today. I%9. 17, 62), who recalled the song of the prophetess Deborah Judges, Chapter 5, verse 5) vlho mountains melted [ flowed in the Hebrew) from before the Lord, suggesting that given infinite time (God s lime) even mountains will How. 

The name stems from the prophetess Deborah, who said in her famous song "The mountains quaked at the presence of the Lord," that is, even mountains move if one waits long enough. Polymers that have a high molecular weight will also have high Deborah numbers, but after long times this parameter will diminish. 

The Deborah number, De, is a dimensionless parameter which is the ratio of the time of relaxation of a material in response to a shear stress to the time of experiment or observation. De=0 for the extreme of inviscid matter (e.g., superfluid helium) and De -> oo for a pure solid. De was taken not only as an index defining the continuum from pure liquid to pure solid but also as a jocular shield for the sometimes misplaced use of theology where, in fact, rheology is concerned [59]. All things flow before God is the paraphrase of the prophetess Deborah that indicates all things have De=0 when the timescale of observation is infinite. 

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