Myth: There are only three states of matter.

Myth: There are only three states of matter.


     I remember growing up and learning all about solids, liquids and gases. When I get accepted in college I learned that exist other states or phases of matter. The books and the information on internet almost always says that “there are only 3 states of matter, solid liquid and gas”. But is important to know that that ones are “the three most well-known types of matter” or “the three types of matter we are most scientifically familiar with”

     The most common types of changes in the phases of matter consists of changing its physical characteristics not chemical characteristics .The best way to think of a phase changing the physical nature of a substance is with the common example of water, ice, and steam. They can occupy nearly the same region of space, and be in completely different phases. Consider a glass of ice water. The ice is in a solid phase, the water is in the liquid phase, and the humid air consisting of the evaporating gas is in another phase. While chemically they are the same, what makes them in different phases is that they are physically distinct from each other.

     Most types of matter can transition into these physically different phases based on the amount of heat present. For instance, everyone knows that if you add heat to a solid it will usually transition into a liquid at least to most part of the matter. If you continue adding heat, the material will transition into a gas.

     At least there are 13 different states of the matter. That number approximately quadruples the number of the basic sates that we all know. Is very important to know it because we can contribute to our scientific education and correct our professor even email a lot of companies that produce the books that we have to buy. And at the same time we stop the myth of the three states that is continuing forward to next generations from child to professional adults.

Some examples of other states of the matter are:

1. Plasma: If you continue to add heat you will turn that gas into plasma. Plasma is an ionized gas, it means that the atoms that compose it have broken away from some of its electrons. Thus, the plasma is similar to gas but composed of anions and cations (ions with negative and positive charge respectively), separated from each other and in free state, so it is an excellent conductor. A clear example is the sun.

2. When you continue cooling a substance to almost absolute zero, you can get what is known as a Bose-Einstein condensate. Due to the need to keep substances at extremely low temperatures, these condensates have not been proven to occur naturally in our universe, although theoretically they could exist.

3. Other, even less known, phases of matter involve the substance’s magnetic characteristics. The most recent example was published in the journal “Nature” in December of 2012. Researchers at MIT were able to grow a crystal (a solid) that had magnetic characteristics of a liquid. While most magnetic solids have defined positive and negative areas within the substance, known as magnetic moments, this crystal’s specific magnetic moments fluctuated constantly without outside influence. Not only were they able to discover this new type of matter, but simultaneously they discovered something of a new type of magnetism!

4. Super-solid: This material is a solid in the sense that all of the atoms of helium (4) that compose it are frozen in a rigid crystalline film, similar to as are the atoms and molecules in a solid normal as ice. The difference is that, in this case, "frozen" does not mean "stationary". So, As the film helium-4 is so cold (just a tenth of a degree above absolute zero), begin to prevail the laws of quantum uncertainty. Indeed, helium atoms begin to behave as if they were solid and fluid simultaneously. In fact, in the right circumstances, a fraction of helium atoms begin to move through the film as a substance known as "super-fluid," a fluid that moves without any friction.

As technology advances, scientists use ever more sophisticated techniques that allow us to know more about the world we live.

See the videos below and share your opinion with me. If you want to read more about this topic see the references.

Have a Great week!
-Stephanie

References

http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2013/08/there-are-more-than-three-states-of-matter/

http://www.taringa.net/post/ciencia-educacion/12403040/Los-estados-de-la-Materia-Ni-tres-ni-cuatro-trece.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-17xqfF4FU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RpLOKqTcSk