In grade school, we’re all taught that there are three states of matter: solids, liquids, and gases. But I’ve seen several other states of matter being added to the trio, such as plasmas, Bose-Einstein condensates, supersolids, and the like. I’ve seen competing science news articles say that there are five, seven, and even as many as fifteen.
How many are there really?
In: 3
There are states which are mostly common to all matter and those technically have a limit to their number. There are also states that are specific to certain substances and these states of matter are essentially infinite as every combination of elements and molecules produces new states. Water alone has something like 15 states and counting. Steel has several. These are mostly sub-variations in the solid states but not exclusively. “States of matter” is kinda only loosely defined.
Latest Answers