• Question: how many states of matter are there

    Asked by anon-227008 to William, Thibaut "Tibo", Harry, Georgia, Emily, Aimee on 9 Nov 2019.
    • Photo: Georgia Orton

      Georgia Orton answered on 9 Nov 2019: last edited 9 Nov 2019 6:53 pm

      There are four natural stated of matter: solid, liquid, gas and plasma. Another state is the ‘Bose-Einstein condensate’ which is man-made.

      Plasma is not a state that is often found on earth (it’s used in neon signs) but it’s probably the most common state in the rest of the universe.

      The Bose-Einstein condensate was made synthetically by cooling an element called rubidium to such low temperatures that molecular vibration nearly stopped. This might be a bit like the conditions of a black hole.

    • Photo: Aimee Egglestone

      Aimee Egglestone answered on 11 Nov 2019:

      Officially, as Georgia said, there are 4 – Solid, Liquid, Gas and Plasma. However there are also weird things which are hard to define eg. “non-newtonian fluids” like slime or Cornstarch in water (which is liquid if you touch it gently, but solid if you punch it)

    • Photo: Thibaut Deviese

      Thibaut Deviese answered on 11 Nov 2019:

      I agree with Georgia and Aimee. Have you heard of supercritical fluids? A supercritical fluid (SCF) is a gas whose temperature and pressure are above the critical temperature and critical pressure respectively. In this state, the distinction between liquid and gas disappears. A supercritical fluid has the physical properties of a gas, but its high density confers solvent properties in some cases, which leads to useful applications. For example, supercritical carbon dioxide is used to extract caffeine in the manufacture of decaffeinated coffee.

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