Three States of Matter
Anything that has a certain mass and occupies space is matter. At normal room
temperature, some matter may exist as solids, some as liquids, and some as
gases.
For example, at normal temperatures sugar, edible salt, marble, etc. exist as
solids; water, oil, kerosene, etc. exist as liquids, and nitrogen, oxygen,
carbon dioxide, etc. exist as gasses. Again, changing the temperature, the
same matter’s state can be transformed into any solid, liquid, or gaseous
state.
Below is given a short discussion on the properties and characteristics of
solids, liquids, and gaseous matters.
Solids
A solid matter has a specific mass, volume, and shape. Molecules of all matter
have a force of attraction. It is known as an intermolecular attraction. This
force is the most in solid matter. As a result, the molecules in solids stay
very close to each other in a fixed state and they take a fixed dimension that
cannot be compressed with pressure. Again, a solid matter hardly changes shape
when the temperature is raised.
Liquids
Liquids have specific mass and volume but do not have a shape. Liquids take
the shapes of their containers. Since the molecules of a liquid remain farther
from each other than those of solids, the intermolecular force of attraction
is also less than solids. Such matters do not change volume when force is
projected on them but the volume increases with the rise of temperature. This
change in volume is greater than that of solids.
Gases
Gases have specific mass but they do not have specific volume or shape.
Whatever quantity of gas is put into any size of the container, it takes over
the full size of that container. The molecules in gases stay further than
those of liquids or solids. The intermolecular force of attraction is also
very low among them. A small quantity of pressure is enough to compress gases
and in the same way, a small amount of temperature is enough to increase the
volume of such matters.
