States of Matter

Select property:

Controls:

Select state:

Model type:

Select state change:

Label y-pos -1.5%

Substance:

Heating intensity: 600

Temperature: -50 C

Oscillation frequency 1.0 Hz

Oscillation amplitude 5.0%

LiquidLevel 20.0%

Beaker x-pos 96.0%

Beaker y-pos 25.5%

Beaker width 223.5%

Beaker height 190.5%

Beaker crop left 0.0%

Beaker crop right 54.5%

Beaker crop top 39.0%

Beaker crop bottom 18.5%

Ice size 126.0%

Ice x-pos -0.5%

Ice y-pos -24.0%

Show intermolecular forces:

Show graph:

Plot width 89%

Plot height 87%

Plot x-pos 100%

Plot y-pos 0%

Show energy bar chart:

Introduction:

This simulation lets you explore all aspects of states of matter including their structure and motion, state changes, heating and cooling curves and their properties.

Common controls:

There is a Pause button to pause the on-screen action and a Reset button to reset the current simulation.
Use the three-way Select state toggle to switch between solid, liquid and gas.
Switch the Show intermolecular forces toggle to Show to display the intermolecular forces for the current state(s) of matter.

States mode: To show the arrangement and particle motion of each state.

Select States at the top of the settings panel.
Toggle Model type to Static to show a static version of the state. This can be helpful to make it clearer to students how to draw each state.

Changes mode: To show the six changes of state.

Select Changes at the top of the settings panel.
Select any of the six state changes to see that state change.
Select Random to choose a random state change to test students (this will cycle through all six in a random order before repeating).

Heating mode: To view the changes as you gradually heat or cool a substance.

Click Heating at the top of the settings panel.
Select a substance from the Substance drop-down menu.
Set the Heating intensity slider to control how quickly substances are heated or cooled. Note: It defaults to a value which takes about 100 s for each substance.
Adjust the current temperature with the Temperature slider, which defaults to a temperature below the current substance's melting point.
Click the Heat button to begin heating, toggling it on and off as desired; whilst heating it will automatically record the data for a heating curve.
Click the Cool button to begin cooling, toggling it on and off as desired; whilst cooling it will automatically record the data for a cooling curve. You may wish to slide the temperature up to the maximum if you want a full cooling curve.
Click the Show heating curve toggle to show a heating curve, which can be toggled to full-screen with the Full button at its top-right corner. Hovering the mouse/clicking on the graph will show a tooltip with the kinetic and potential energy values at that point.
Click the Show energy bar chart toggle to display a bar chart of the average kinetic and potential energy of the particles as the simulation progresses.

Properties mode: To explore the properties of each state of matter.

Click Properties at the top of the settings panel.
Choose Compressibility from the Select property drop-down. Click and drag the arrow on the piston to move the slider down and attempt to compress the state; change the state to see how different states behave.
Choose Density from the Select property drop-down. Observe how the solid sinks to the bottom of the box, clicking and dragging it to move it around. Switch the Substance toggle to Water to see how the density of solid water (ice) differs to other substances.
Choose Flow from the Select property drop-down. Click on the teal rectangle to remove the blockage from the container and observe whether each of the states flows through the gap.
Choose Shape from the Select property drop-down. Drag the blue circles to rotate the shape, drag the white ones in and out to change the shape, switch states to see how differently they behave.

States of matter:

The three states of matter are solid (such as ice, stone or wood), liquid (such as water, oil or ethanol) and gas (such as water vapour, oxygen or air).

Solids, liquids, and gases differ in the arrangement and movement of their particles as follows:

Solids

Solid particle arrangement diagram

Arrangement: Particles are touching and organised in a regular 3D pattern.
Movement: Particles are vibrating around a fixed point, but cannot move around.
Explanation: The particles in a solid are held in place by strong forces of attraction called intermolecular forces, which prevent them from moving.

Liquids

Liquid particle arrangement diagram

Arrangement: Particles are touching and in a random arrangement.
Movement: Particles are moving freely.
Explanation: The intermolecular forces between the particles have been partly broken, meaning the particles are still attracted to each other, but not strongly enough to hold them in fixed positions, which allows them to move.

Gases

Gas particle arrangement diagram

Arrangement: Particles are spaced far apart and in a random arrangement.
Movement: Particles are moving freely very quickly.
Explanation: The intermolecular forces between the particles have been entirely broken meaning the particles move freely with no attraction to each other.

Try this in the simulation:

Switch the Select state toggle between Solid, Liquid and Gas to see the three states, note their arrangement (regular and touching for solid, random and touching for liquid, random and spaced for gas) and their movement (vibrating for solid, moving for liquid, moving quickly for gas).
Toggle Show intermolecular forces to Show and see how in the solid there is a fixed grid of intermolecular forces holding the solid particles in place, for liquid there are fewer intermolecular forces per particle and they are continuously breaking and reforming as the particle move, whilst in gas there are no intermolecular forces.