States of matter| solid, liquid, gas, plasma & BEC explained| #BePharmawise
Written by: Supriya Mandrupkar
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States of matter | solid, liquid, gas, plasma & BEC explained.
There are four natural states of matter- solid, liquid, gas and plasma and one man made state- Bose-Einstein Condensates! In this article, you will find brief description of these states of matter.
So, let’s start the discussion with the question- What creates this universe? The things you see around are actually made up of what? The objects that have mass are called…….. ??
And the answer is- It is “MATTER
Matter is the "stuff" that makes up the universe — everything that takes up space and has mass is matter.
Do you know the states of matter?
There are four natural states of matter: Solids, liquids, gases and plasma.
Solids:
• In a solid, particles are packed tightly together so they don't move much.
• Solids have a definite shape, as well as mass and volume, and do not conform to the shape of the container in which they are placed.
• Solids also have a high density, meaning that the particles are tightly packed together.
Liquids:
• In a liquid, the particles are more loosely packed than in a solid and are able to flow around each other, giving the liquid an indefinite shape. Therefore, the liquid will conform to the shape of its container.
• Much like solids, liquids (most of which have a lower density than solids) are incredibly difficult to compress.
Gas:
• In a gas, the particles have a great deal of space between them and have high kinetic energy.
• A gas has no definite shape or volume. If unconfined, the particles of a gas will spread out indefinitely; if confined, the gas will expand to fill its container.
• When a gas is put under pressure by reducing the volume of the container, the space between particles is reduced and the gas is compressed.
Plasma:
• Plasma is not a common state of matter here on Earth, but it may be the most common state of matter in the universe.
• Stars are essentially superheated balls of plasma.
• Plasma consists of highly charged particles with extremely high kinetic energy.
• The noble gases (helium, neon, argon, krypton, xenon and radon) are often used to make glowing signs by using electricity to ionize them to the plasma state.
Do you know, there is a fifth state of matter?
• The fifth state is the man-made Bose-Einstein condensates.
• The Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) was created by scientists Eric Cornell and Carl Weiman in 1995.
• They Used a combination of lasers and magnets and cooled a sample of rubidium to within a few degrees of absolute zero.
Absolute zero temperature : zero kelvin (minus 273.15 degrees Celsius)
• At this extremely low temperature, molecular motion comes very close to stopping.
• Since there is almost no kinetic energy being transferred from one atom to another, the atoms begin to clump together. There are no longer thousands of separate atoms, just one "super atom."
• A BEC is used to study quantum mechanics on a macroscopic level.
• BECs are also used to simulate conditions that might exist in black holes.
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