The States of Matter

Matter is all around us. Matter is the stuff that we hear, see, taste, smell, or touch and feel. And matter comes in three different states.

The word “state” refers to one of the principal conditions in which matter exists. All the matter on Earth may be classified into three states – solid, liquid, and gas. The air we breathe and the air inside a balloon are gas.

Matter

LiquidSolid Gas

Look around you. Look inside and outside the room. Look at the things inside your bag. Which of these things can be classified as solid, liquid, or gas? List at least five objects that belong to each state. Use the table below.

Solid GasLiquid

What are the characteristics of a solid, liquid, and gas? What properties distinguish them from each other?

Solids are objects that have their own shape. They have definite size and volume. Some examples of solid objects are a pencil, an iron, a log and a biscuit.

Solids have unique properties that set them apart from other states of matter : hardness, malleability, elasticity and brittleness.

Matter

LiquidSolid Gas

Hardness Malleability Elasticity Brittleness

Hardness is a measure of a solid’s resistance to various kinds of permanent shape change. It means that you cannot just change the shape of a solid object without a strong force. For example, your shoes will have the same size and shape even if you don’t wear them for a long time; your pad paper will always be rectangular unless you shred into pieces; and a burger is round until you bite into it.

Malleability is a solid’s ability to be stretched, bent, rolled, twisted, beaten, and pounded into something else without breaking. Aluminum, tin, gold, and silver are highly malleable materials. Aluminum and tin are used for packaging canned goods such as sardines and soft drinks. Gold and silver are used to make jewelry in various shape.

Elasticity is the property of solid materials to return to their original shape and size. Elastic materials give objects the ability to bounce and withstand impact without breaking. If you stretch a rubber band, it gets elongated. If you let it go, the rubber band returns to its original shape.

Brittleness is that property of solids that causes some materials to easily break. A piece of chalk, light bulb, and glass would shatter into pieces if you drop them.

Liquids have definite mass andvolume, but do not have definite shape. They takeon the shape of their container. They can bepoured and can flow and spill. Water is anexample of a liquid. If you put water in a bottle, itwill take the shape of the bottle. Just like solids,

liquids have their own properties: fluidity,evaporation and freezing.

Matter

LiquidSolid Gas

Fluidity Evaporation Freezing

Fluidity is the physical property of a substance

that enables it to flow. It is that property of liquids thatenables us to pour water, milk, fruit juice, or cooking oilfrom one container to another.

Have you ever spilled fruit juice? Did you noticethe liquid goes everywhere and you had to quickly wipe itup?

Spilled liquid would follow the shape of the floor-the fruit juice would keep on flowing on the wide, andseemingly limitless floor until hits the wall.

Evaporation is the process by which a liquid changes into gas or vapor due to an increase in temperature and/or pressure. Water from the Earth’s ocean, seas, rivers, and lakes transferred into the atmosphere through evaporation.

Evaporation also occurs when you boil water in a pot and you can see steam or water vapor coming out of the pot.

Freezing, or solidification, is a phase transition in which a liquid turns into a solid when its temperature is lowered below its freezing point. When liquids freeze, they become so cold that they turn solid.

The little squares of water in an ice tray freeze and become ice cubes when placed in the refrigerator.

Gas is matter that has no shape or size of its own. It follows the size and shape of the container in which it is placed.

You can’t see gas, but you can feel or smell it. Most gases are colorless, making them invisible. Some gases have their own odor.

The oxygen that you breathe in and the carbon dioxide that you exhale are both gases.

Gases are all around you. You can feel gas when the wind blows. The wind is moving air. The air around us is composed of many gases mixed together.

All gases have the properties of compressibility and expandability.

Matter

LiquidSolid Gas

Expandability Compressibility

Compressibility is the ability of gas to be squashed into

smaller space. It is the property that enables gases to be reducedin volume by applying force.

When you inflate or blow air into a balloon the air fillsall the space inside it. If you forcefully twist the balloon the air willbe compressed and stay in the available space.

Expandability is the ability of gases to complete filltheir container. The freedom of gas molecules to move aroundcauses them to take the shape of any container into which theyare placed, filling the entire container.

When you inflate a balloon the air occupies the entirespace inside the balloon and takes its shape.

A gallon of gas, when placed in a five gallon containerwill expand and fit the whole container.