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Liquids and gases are considered to be fluids because they yield to shearing forces, whereas solids resist them. Note that the extent to which fluids yield to shearing forces (and hence flow easily and quickly) depends on a quantity called the viscosity which is discussed in detail in Chapter 12.4 Viscosity and Laminar Flow; Poiseuille’s Law.
- OpenStax
- 2016
The major distinction is that gases are easily compressed, whereas liquids are not. We shall generally refer to both gases and liquids simply as fluids, and make a distinction between them only when they behave differently. Heat, cool, and compress atoms and molecules and watch as they change between solid, liquid, and gas phases.
Matter most commonly exists as a solid, liquid, or gas; these states are known as the three common phases of matter.Solids have a definite shape and a specific volume, liquids have a definite volume but their shape changes depending on the container in which they are held, and gases have neither a definite shape nor a specific volume as their molecules move to fill the container in which they ...
Jul 16, 2024 · We can understand the phases of matter and what constitutes a fluid by considering the forces between atoms that make up matter in the three phases. Figure 4.2.1 4.2. 1: (a) Atoms in a solid always have the same neighbors, held near home by forces represented here by springs. These atoms are essentially in contact with one another.
- Changing from One State to Another
- The Kinetic Theory of Matter
- What Is Absolute Zero?
- Why Are Solids, Liquids, and Gases So Different?
- What About Plasma?
- Are There Any Other States of Matter?
You can change any substance from a solid to a liquid or gas, or back again, just by changing its pressure and/or temperature, but that's not immediately obvious to us in a world where the temperature and pressure don't change much at all. On Earth, temperatures broadly vary from about −30°C to +30°C or (−70°F to +90°F)—which seems a huge variation...
Another way to understand solids, liquids, and gases is by thinking about the energy they contain. A balloon full of gas has molecules dashing about inside it, smashing repeatedly into the rubberwalls and pressing them outward. Balloons stay up because the force of the gas molecules pushing against the inner surface of the rubber exerts a pressure ...
What if you cool down a balloon—and keep cooling? Suppose you fill your balloon with steam to start with. Cool it for a while and you'd get a balloon with a bit of water inside, then a balloon frozen with ice. If you keep on cooling, you take more and more energy from the molecules inside. Even the atoms or molecules in a solid do move about a litt...
A solid lump of iron is much heavier than a glass of water the same size, while a balloon that's many times bigger seems to weigh nothing at all. Some solids, such as rubber, are very stretchy: you can pull a rubber band to two or three times its length and it will snap straight back to its original length when you let go. Other solids (like glass ...
If you heat a liquid, sooner or later you get a gas—but what happens if you keep heating? Eventually you produce a fourth state of matter called a plasma, in which the gas molecules not only separate from one another but break apart into their subatomic components—electrons and ions (in this case, atoms missing electrons). Plasmas are used in plasm...
I've just broken the "bad" news that there are four states of matter, not three. But is that the end of the story?Nope! There are a few others that exist only under extreme conditions. The best known of theseare called Bose-Einstein condensates (in honor of physicists Albert Einstein and Satyendra Nath Bose). They're formed when special gases made ...
Gas. The atoms and molecules in gases are much more spread out than in solids or liquids. They vibrate and move freely at high speeds. A gas will fill any container, but if the container is not sealed, the gas will escape. Gas can be compressed much more easily than a liquid or solid.
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Liquids and gases are considered to be fluids because they yield to shearing forces, whereas solids resist them. Note that the extent to which fluids yield to shearing forces (and hence flow easily and quickly) depends on a quantity called the viscosity which is discussed in detail in Viscosity and Laminar Flow; Poiseuille’s Law .
