3 states of matter/Would you believe 12?

[nexium]

Besides solid, liquid and gas consider: Slightly ionized = one electron in one the shells of some of the atoms, displaced to a higher energy state.<br /> Mostly ionized = most of the atomic nuclii have all their shells of electrons stripped away. Mostly ionized occurs only at extreme temperatures and/or extreme voltage.<br /> A third kind of ionized is when the atom has a negative charge due to one more electron than it has protons or a positive charge due to one less electron than it has protons as in an ion drive.<br /> Also most substances produce vapor well below the boiling point and some below the melting point. The vapor is much like gas, except errors occur, applying the gas law and vapor condenses back to liquid or solid above a certain concentration = the dew point. I think the dew point depends considerably on gases which are mixed with the vapor.<br /> Another state of matter likely is rare except in very hard vacuum ie atomic oxygen as opposed to molecular oxygen which comes 2 atoms per molecule or ozone which comes 3 atoms per molecule. Likely all substances can be divide to single atoms, or unnatural pairs such as OH, CH, SO if widely distributed in a very high vacuum.<br /> Reasonably white dwarf star stuff, neutronium = neutron star stuff,<br />quark star stuff, a bucket of neutrons and perhaps black hole stuff are different states of matter. There may be twelve or more states of matter depending on how you want to write the definitions. Please embellish, refute and/or comment. Neil

 

[meteo]

High pressure ices could be added as well water has 11 phases of ice up into the billions of pascals.

 

[Maddad]

When you say something is a different state of matter, you do so because it behaves differently. For instance, a plasma is different from a gas because it carries an electrical charge. Usually one electron is stripped, but as you noticed several can be. Alternatively an electron can be added. However, all of these are still plasmas, commonly thought of as the 4th state of matter, because they all are different in that they have a charge. Changing the amount of charge doesn't really make them enough different to call each one a different state of matter.

 

[silylene old]

solid<br />liquid<br />gas<br />ordinary plasmas (whether + or - charged)<br />quark-gluon plasmas<br />neutronium<br />magnetar neutronium<br />bose-einstein condensate<br />whatever it is inside of a black hole<br />superconducting fluid phases (might this be different enough to be a "state" ?) <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature" align="center"><em><font color="#0000ff">- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -</font></em> </div><div class="Discussion_UserSignature" align="center"><font color="#0000ff"><em>I really, really, really miss the "first unread post" function.</em></font> </div> </div>

 

[siarad]

Liquid crystal. First discovered in carrots in the 19th Century I think.

 

[silylene old]

Yep, liquid crystals, forgot that one. Most of the scientific technical literature classifies this as a "phase", for example "mesophases".<br /><br />Arguably, most liquid crystals are mixtures of a solid-like phase (more generally, an ordered phase, e.g. smectic phase) and a liquid-like phase (disorderd phase).<br /><br />I am hesitant to call liquid crystals a "state" however. It's more of a mixture, or sometimes even a homogeneous semi-ordered phase.<br /><br />If you call liquid crystals a "state", then perhaps micelles would have to be called a "state" too. But they are not.<br /><br />But I do admit a lot of popular literature does call liquid crystals a "state", and sometimes even technical publications.<br /><br />Unfortunately, the terms "state" and "phase" are rather ambiguous. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature" align="center"><em><font color="#0000ff">- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -</font></em> </div><div class="Discussion_UserSignature" align="center"><font color="#0000ff"><em>I really, really, really miss the "first unread post" function.</em></font> </div> </div>

 

[meteo]

Super critical fluids, pressure and temperature above the critical point.

 

[diogenes]

You are kidding about carrots, right?<br /><br />I found this page interesting while trying to follow some of this thread.<br /><br />http://plc.cwru.edu/tutorial/enhanced/files/textbook.htm