• Question: my teacher says that there is only 3 states of matter, but some in my class says that there is more. Is my teacher or classmate right, and how many are there??

    Asked by anon-267550 on 11 Nov 2020.
    • Photo: Bradley Young

      Bradley Young answered on 11 Nov 2020:

      Your teacher is probably telling you about the 3 states of matter that you need to know about, and these are the most important. But a 4th state of matter called plasma also exists which is kind of like a gas but the atoms get a bit broken up. We use plasmas in nuclear fusion reactors and they can also occur in lightning storms.

    • Photo: Liza Sazonova

      Liza Sazonova answered on 11 Nov 2020:

      Plasma is very rare on Earth, but it’s actually one of the most common states of matter in space 🙂

    • Photo: Alex Dickinson-Lomas

      Alex Dickinson-Lomas answered on 12 Nov 2020:

      Bradley and Liza have answered this question very clearly. Plasma doesn’t tend to hang around for very long on earth as it’s made from atoms that have had some of their electrons removed. This makes them extremely reactive so usually plasmas will quickly turn into other states of matter. If you have a microwave (an old one…I am not sure this is a good suggestion in terms of microwave health!) and some grapes you can make a plasma! Just slice the grape ALMOST in half; leave a bit of skin attaching the two halves! Then pop it in the microwave and you’ll see a glowing in the centre of the two halves. This is light generated by the plasma created as ions (atoms with some electrons removed) flow from one half of the grape to the other. 🙂

    • Photo: Sam Geen

      Sam Geen answered on 13 Nov 2020:

      Like Bradley said, because plasma is a bit like a gas sometimes people count it as a gas, sometimes people count it as its own thing. When I make nebulae in space on a computer, I track how much of it is a plasma (ionsed, or charged gas, which means there are electrons outside of atoms floating around) and how much of it is a “neutral” (not charged, all the electrons are in atoms) gas. This is important because it tells you how much the gas or plasma glows and what colour it is, but also because different things can make it a plasma – either something super fast like a wind from a star or a supernova makes it super hot, or super energetic light kicks the electrons out of the atoms and makes it a plasma.

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