If you have ever mixed up Kool-Aid before, you might remember the packet of Kool-Aid mix that you add to a large pitcher of water. The Kool-Aid mix by itself is a solid, made up of sugar, flavorings, and dyes to color it. When you add it to the water, this powdered mix seems to disappear. The Kool-Aid mix is dissolving in the water, meaning that the chunks of mix are breaking apart in the water and becoming individual molecules floating among the water molecules. Once the mix is dissolved, the entire pitcher (or, in scientific terms, the solution) is a liquid that is a mix of water and sugar/color/flavor molecules. We know it is a liquid because it takes the shape of the container it is placed in, and we can't make the same amount of it fit in a smaller container (meaning we cannot compress it). If we could look at the individual molecules, we would see water molecules and Kool-Aid molecules (meaning the sugar/flavor/color molecules) floating around very close to each other, bumping into each other and even forming weak bonds with each other. If we kept adding Kool-Aid mix to the solution, the water would keep dissolving the mix until it became saturated, or until it couldn't dissolve any more mix. When this happens, we would see particles of Kool-Aid mix floating around in the solution, in which case we would have a solid (the undissolved Kool-Aid mix) floating around in a liquid (the Kool-Aid + water solution).

You could try this for yourself at home with sugar and water, and watch as the sugar dissolves slowly in the water until the solution becomes too saturated with sugar.

Depending on how you are defining "Kool-Aid", it is either a solid or a liquid. Kool-Aid is typically sold as a dry powder (mostly sugar), which is a solid. (Actually, it is a mixture of several solids, each of the ingredients being a different component. ) However, Kool-Aid is not usually consumed dry; it is mixed with a liquid, such as water. Upon mixing, the powder dissolves and a solution is formed. This solution is also referred to as "Kool-Aid", just like the powder, but does not meet the criteria to be called a solid. This solution does meet the criteria for a liquid, so one might consider (mixed) Kool-Aid to be a liquid.

[On a semi-related note, readers of this topic may be interested in this ScienceLine question about Jello being a mixture or a solution.]

Kool-Aid is usually purchased as a powder, and then dissolved in water. This means it is a "solution."

A solution is a liquid (usually water) that has other things dissolved in it (like sugar or salt.) In fact, most beverages are solutions! So Kool-Aid powder is a solid, but when you dissolve it in liquid water, the resulting colorful drink is considered a liquid solution.

That depends if you’re planning on consuming the Kool-Aid! When Kool-Aid was invented in 1927 by some dude named Edwin Perkins, it was sold as a powder because it was marketed as a super-concentrated drink mix. One packet promised 10 glasses of soft drink for 10 cents!

Kool-Aid was based on a concentrated soft drink liquid called Fruit Smack. However, liquids are pretty heavy, and heavier things cost more to ship. So Perkins removed the liquid from Fruit Smack, leaving only the lightweight, solid powder which he named Kool-Aid. The lighter weight meant you could sell more for cheaper.

So are you just taking it straight from the packet? Then Kool-Aid is a powdery solid.

Are you drinking it? Then the powder is dissolved by water molecules, forming a solution. A solution is a uniform mixture of substances. This is like adding sugar to tea. The sugar is dissolved by the tea, so you end up with pretty uniformly sweet tea, which is a liquid.

Are you straight up eating it without dissolving it in water first? Then the powder is dissolved by saliva, forming another liquid solution.

Kool-Aid powder is a solid. When you add it to water to make the drink called 'Kool-Aid,' the drink is a liquid.

Before Kool-Aid is put into water and dissolves, it is a powder, and therefore a solid. Here, we're not using the word "solid" to mean "a chunk of something", like a Lego piece or an eraser. We're using the word "solid" as one of the four states of matter: solid, liquid, gas, and plasma. After the Kool-Aid powder dissolves, it is then part of a liquid. Here, the word "liquid" doesn't have to just mean "water", but anything that can flow (like milk).

Kook-aid in the box is a powder composed of tiny crystals (a solid). However, when you drink it, you first dissolve the crystals in water (a liquid). Thus, whether it is a liquid or a solid depends on whether you're about to drink it or not.