My son, second grade, is doing states of matter. We were trying to help him label different examples for solid, liquids, and gasses. In his science textbook, it mentions that you can’t see a gas and that steam is a liquid because it’s just water suspended in the air, but on his worksheet, by a different source, has fog and smoke as an example of a gas. I’ve always thought of smoke as a gas on a base level. I understand that there are particles being suspended in the air that you can see, but can someone help the states of matter so I can help my son with his homework.
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1) Solids–atoms have a relatively small amount of thermal energy. They (for the most part) do not have sufficient energy to break free from the relatively large inter-molecular forces holding them together. They will hold their shape without assistance.
2) Liquids–atoms have enough energy to freely move around each other, but are still bound by relatively strong intermolecular forces. Liquids will conform to the container that they are placed in, but will settle towards the bottom of the container in a clump.
3) Gas–atoms have sufficient energy to break free from the inter-molecular forces. They will travel relatively freely. Gases will conform to the container that they are placed in. They will tend to occupy the entire volume of the container. Smoke is NOT a gas. It is a suspension of SOLID particles in a gas. Fog is NOT a gas. It is a suspension of LIQUID particles in a gas. Steam IS a gas. Steam is not what you see coming out of teapot–steam is transparent like most gases. The stuff coming out of the teapot is suspended liquid water droplets in a gas (steam and air).
4) Plasma–you didn’t include this one, but it is a commonly accepted and known state of matter. In a plasma. the atoms have so much energy that some of their outer electrons are set free (they’re no longer bound to the atom). Plasma is essentially an ionized gas and exists at very high temperatures. A lightning bolt is a streak of plasma in the air.
5) Bose-Einstein Condesate–depending upon who you ask this may be a fifth state of matter. This is a state in which a large number of bosons (integer spin particles) have such low energy that they exist in the same quantum state. Fermions (half-integer spin particles) do not exhibit this state since they abide by the Pauli Exclusion principle which prevents them occupying the same quantum state. An example of a bose-einstein condesate is liquid helium cooled down to a couple K above absolute zero.
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