Describe the five states of matter?

Answer 1

There are currently 5 states of matter, namely solid, liquid, gas, plasma and Bose-Einstein condensates.

Solids are basically objects, such as a rocks and humans. They have a definite volume and shape. They cannot be compressed as the molecules in a solid are very closely packed due to strong intermolecular forces that bonds the molecules together. They expand when heated and contract when cooled. When heated, the molecules vibrate the more and more vigorously in their places when the temperature increases.

Liquids are water-like matter, such as seawater and paint. They have a definite volume, however have no definite shape, as the intermolecular forces are not as strong as those in solids to bond the molecules together. Hence, the molecules will move around the container when tilted to reach a horizontal level (plane). They can be compressed, however only to a small extent. They expand when cooled (ice in solid state) and contract when heated (water vapour in gaseous state). The molecules will then become compacted or move further apart when in the respective states. The molecules will lose energy when steam condenses to water.

Gas is basically the air. The air is usually made up different kinds of gases, such as oxygen and carbon dioxide. However, they all share common characterisics. Gases do not have a definite volume and shape, thus able to fill up anything, such as the atmosphere. They can be compressed as the intermolecular forces are weak. The gas molecules are spaced far apart, and they move in a continuous and random motion. Their speed varies according to the temperature and the number of atoms. The higher the temperature or the less the atoms, the faster they move. They bounce away from any other molecules (gas, dust or smoke), thus have no fixed motion. This is called the Brownian Motion. Diffusion is greatly present, where the molecules will diffuse in the air till it reaches a state of equilibrium. Gas also expands greatly when heated and contracts greatly when cooled.

Plasma is the superheated phase where electrons get torn from the atom (ionization). It is the rarest phase of matter on Earth although it is the most common in the universe. They can be natural (lightning and the Sun) or man-made (fluorescent light tubes).

Examples of Bose-Einstein Condensates are superconductors and superfluids. These are materials that are cooled till they almost reach absolute zero (0 K, -273.15 ­°C). Superconductors are materials (solids) that have no resistance to the flow of electricity, such as superconducting metals, alloys and compounds (alloy of Niobium and Titanium). They are extremely cooled they can repel a magnetic field. Superfluids are liquid gas, as water would be frozen by then, that have strange behaviours. Liquid helium, for example, is cooled till it can actually "creep" on the walls of a smaller container placed inside a larger container to enter and then form its own horizontal level, unlike the previously-mentioned characteristic of liquids! Superfluids are also able to trap light and slow its moving speed down, which is a great breakthrough. This topic has, however, not much data and we are not able to talk much about it currently.

Actually water is highly unusual in that it expands when cooled. It is much more common for liquids to contract when cooled. However water molecules have an electromagnetic dipole which means they can Hydrogen Bond to each other. Hydrogen bonds are longer than normal intermolecular forces so when they become relevant (when the water is freezing) the bonds hold the molecules away from each other, lowering the density of ice. Water is at it's densest at 4 degrees centigrade, at higher temperatures than that it expands like all other liquids.