States of Matter
Drag the energy slider from absolute zero to a million Kelvin. Watch particles transition from a Bose-Einstein Condensate, through solid, liquid, gas, and into ionised plasma. Understand why all states are just energy in disguise.
drag the slider · click any state · watch the particles
5 minutes · +4 right, −1 wrong (real NEET marking) · one global leaderboard.
A Bose-Einstein Condensate (BEC) is a state of matter formed when a gas of bosons is cooled to within a few billionths of a degree above absolute zero. Particles lose their individual identity and merge into a single quantum mechanical wavefunction. BECs were predicted in 1924 and first created experimentally in 1995.
Plasma is matter so hot that atoms have lost some or all of their electrons, forming a soup of positive ions and free electrons. It is actually the most abundant state of matter in the universe — stars, lightning, neon signs, and the solar wind are all plasmas.
Most substances are denser as solids than as liquids, but water is a rare exception. Hydrogen bonding forces water molecules into an open hexagonal lattice when they freeze, so ice has lower density than liquid water. This is why ice floats and why lakes freeze from the top down.
The state of matter is determined by the balance between the kinetic energy of the particles and the intermolecular attractive forces holding them together. When kinetic energy is low, attractions win and you get a solid. As energy rises, particles overcome attractions and the substance progresses through liquid, gas, and finally plasma.
Gases have negligible intermolecular forces, fill the entire volume of any container, and move randomly with high kinetic energy. The one property gases do NOT have is a fixed shape and volume — that belongs to solids. Liquids have fixed volume but variable shape.
Which of the following is NOT a characteristic of the gaseous state?