ElI5: We were taught about the 3 states of matter in school, but there’s a 4th state called plasma. Why weren’t we taught about all 4 states together?

Question

ElI5: We were taught about the 3 states of matter in school, but there’s a 4th state called plasma. Why weren’t we taught about all 4 states together?

In: Physics

Answer 1

education is a series of age appropriate simplifications. as you go through you get closer and closer to our actual understanding, but going in full bore on everything from the start would overwhelm every 5yo that ever was.

there’s also supercritical fluids, compressible liquids. many, many kinds of water ice.

eventually you get to the frontier of our knowledge, and it’s all just math with no easy analogy to the real world.