Solids, Liquids, and Gases – oh my!

States of Matter!

Today we explored the changes that occur between the different forms, or states of matter. Matter can transition between states by adding or removing heat (energy).  Most of us are familiar with the liquid, solid, and gas states of matter but there are others that we are less familiar with, like plasma.  Plasma is matter that makes up the stars of our universe and can be found in lightning and even in plasma TVs.  

We also investigated the changes that occur when matter transitions from one state to another.   We all know that when a liquid transitions to a gas, it is called vaporization (or evaporation), and changes between solids and liquids are referred to as melting and freezing, but some of the change terms were new, such as deposition (gas to solid).  Through demonstrations with dry ice (the solid state of carbon dioxide), the students were able to observe one particularly exciting transition in action: sublimation (solid to gas).

We studied sublimation by adding dry ice to water. The warmth of the water causes the dry ice to sublimate rapidly, releasing clouds of white vapor (condensed water) that quickly sinks and dissipates. This was great fun to investigate and allowed the students to see all three states of matter (solid, liquid and gas) in a single cup.

Additional Information:

Check out this video on how to make dry ice bubbles!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76CNkxizQuc

 

¡Estados de la Materia!

Hoy exploramos los cambios que ocurren entre las distintos estados de la materia. La materia puede cambiar de estado al agregar o quitar calor (energía). La mayoría de nosotros conoce los estados de la materia líquido, sólido y gaseoso, pero también existen otros estados de materia menos conocidos como el plasma. El plasma es un tipo de materia que conforma las estrellas de nuestro universo, pero también se puede encontrar en los relámpagos e incluso en los aparatos de televisión de plasma. 

Durante la clase también investigamos que es lo que sucede cuando la materia cambia de un estado a otro. El cambio de líquido a gaseoso se llama evaporación, y los cambios entre sólido y líquido se conocen como fusión y solidificación. Por otra parte, el cambio de gas a sólido se llama deposición. Utilizando hielo seco (el estado sólido del dióxido de carbono), los estudiantes pudieron observar uno de los cambios de estados de materia más impresionantes: la sublimación, que es el cambio de sólido a gas.

Estudiamos la sublimación al introducir hielo seco en agua. El calor del agua hace que el hielo seco sublime rápidamente, liberando así nubes de vapor blanco (agua condensada) las cuales disipan prontamente. Esta actividad fue muy entretenida y permitió que los alumnos observarán distintos estados de la materia (sólido, líquido y gas), ¡usando sólo una taza!

Información adicional:

Revisa este video sobre cómo hacer burbujas de hielo seco.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76CNkxizQuc

Author

Dr. Maureen Griffin

Maureen earned a Ph.D. in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania in 2003. While at Penn, she developed a novel micro-mechanical technique called micropipette peeling to investigate the role of muscle cell adhesion in normal and diseased skeletal muscle cells. After graduating, Maureen worked full time as a post-doctoral researcher and then a staff scientist a SelectX Pharmaceuticals. She joined the teaching staff in 2008 and was excited to be made an executive staff member in 2009. Maureen also continued to consult part time for SelectX until her daughter's birth in 2009; now she is focused on Science from Scientists and, of course, her children. Maureen uses her spare time to read, blog, cook, and renovate her house.

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