States of Matter: Number & Properties

  • Context: High School 
  • Thread starter Thread starter WARLORDTF
  • Start date Start date
  • Tags Tags
    Matter States

Offtopic poll has been closed


  • Total voters
    1
Join the discussion
Ask a follow-up here, or get your own question answered by working scientists, mathematicians and engineers — people, not an autocomplete.
Real named experts · corrections over time · the nuance an AI answer skips
8 replies · 5K views
WARLORDTF
Messages
31
Reaction score
0
States Of Matter...

Just out of interest as I am compiling a list of the states of matter & their properties can someone please clear up the age old dispute;

How Many States Of Matter Are There?

If you could state the number with what (additional) states of matter, please list them and their properties.
 
Physics news on Phys.org
I don't think's a meaningful question anymore. Sure, simple materials (e.g. water) can exist as a solid, liquid, or gas. But more complicated materials don't fall into any of those clean categories- what's toothpaste, for example? (It's a viscoelastic fluid/Bingham fluid)
 
Matters generally divided into four categories; solid, liquid, gas, and plasma. That fourth category, plasma, is debated by some who claim that it is merely a special condition of the gaseous state.

The existence of neutron stars and the proposed existence of Quark stars, along with the discovery of BEC's (Bose-Einstein Condensates) suggest that there are many more states of matter of which we are not aware, simply because they do not concur in our everyday experience.
 
What About Bose-Einstein Condensate (First Observed in 1995)
or Liquid Crystal
or Fermionic Condensate
etc.
 
How does Planck matter grab ya? The false vacuum? Dark energy? Strings and branes?
 
I guess there are two states; one where it is matter and one where it is energy.

k
 


I will just list how much I know off the top of my head. There are solids, liquids, gases, plasma, Bose-einstein Condensates, Fermionic Condensates, superfluids, beam, thought wave (is this real? I've never found proof), quark-gluon plasma, supersolids, string-net liquids, superglass, and dark matter. I'm not positive about these, so if I made any mistakes, please correct me.
 


WARLORDTF said:
Just out of interest as I am compiling a list of the states of matter & their properties can someone please clear up the age old dispute;

How Many States Of Matter Are There?

If you could state the number with what (additional) states of matter, please list them and their properties.

That's so awesome. When you are completed with this arduous task please forward a copy of it to me. I want to help, too. What's your email? Should I just post it up on megaupload or rapidshare or something?