The Five States Of Matter : Bose- Einstein Condensates & Plasma

How many of you know States of matters is not three but they are five?

There are five states of matter in which three are very-well known to majority of us; Solids, Liquids and Gases. There is one more natural State of matter that is Plasma which occurs or most abundant at Stars. The fifth state of matter is man-made and it is know as Bose-Einstein Condensates. Now lets have a brief study of these five states of matter.

The 5 states of matter (source: chem4kids)

 Bose-Einstein Condensate:

Newly formed Bose-Einstein condensates.

  • Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) was created by scientists in 1995.
  • Using a combination of lasers and magnets, cooled a sample rubidium to within a few degrees of absolute zero.
  • At this extremely low temperture, molecular motion almost comes to stops.
  • Since, there is no kinetic energy being transferred from one atom to another, atoms begin to clump together.
  • They are no longer thousands of separate atoms, just one "super atom."
  • BEC is used to study Quantum Mechanics on a microscopic level. Light appears to slow down as it passes through BEC, allowing scientists to study the particle/wave paradox.
  • BECs are also used to stimulate conditions that might exist in black holes.
  • Its has the properties of superfluid or a fluid that flows without friction.

Solids:

Closely Packed particles in solids.

  • Solids have definite Shape, Volume(size) and Mass. 
  • Solids have high density, meaning particles are tightly packed. 
  • In solids, the particles are tightly packed together so they don't move much. 
  • Even though the particles are tightly packed, electrons of each atom are constantly in motion, so the particles have some (negligible) vibrations at room temperature. 
  • Because of this, particles in the solids have very little Kinetic Energy.
  • These are Highly incompressible.

Liquids:

Liquid state particles.
  • Liquids doesn't have fixed Shave, They occupy the shape of the container stored. 
  • The particles in liquids are more loosely packed than in solids. 
  • Most of the liquids have less density compared to that of solids.
  • Liquids have more kinetic energy than solids but very less than gases. 
  • They are also incredibly difficult to Compress.

Gases:

Freely moving gas particles.
  • Gases have indefinite shape, size. 
  • They have less density that of liquids. 
  • In a gas, 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 particles of a gas will expand to fill its container. 
  • Gases are highly Compressible.

Plasma:

Plasma state of particles.
  • Plasma state is not a common state of matter on Earth.
  • It is most common state of matter in the universe, according to Jefferson Laboratory.
  • Stars are essentially super-heated balls of plasma.
  • Due to extremely high temperature, atom looses its electrons and forms ions/nuclei. The mixture of electrons and Nuclei is called plasma.
  • Plasma consists of highly charged particles with extremely high kinetic energy.
  • The noble gases are often used to make glowing signs by using electricity to ionize them to plasma state.
I have explained the brief content of the five states of matter. I am going to write some detailed content on each state of matter. 

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