Monday 16 January 2017

Pencils, paper, tables and chairs are all made of tiny moving particles. What stops these objects from flying apart?

The items you listed are all made of mixtures of substances in the solid phase. The molecules of a solid aren't flying around, they're vibrating in place. The reason they're not flying around is that they're attracted to each other. A solid has a definite volume and shape because the molecules are close together, locked into position and can't move past each other. Of the three states of matter, gas molecules have the most kinetic...

The items you listed are all made of mixtures of substances in the solid phase. The molecules of a solid aren't flying around, they're vibrating in place. The reason they're not flying around is that they're attracted to each other. A solid has a definite volume and shape because the molecules are close together, locked into position and can't move past each other. Of the three states of matter, gas molecules have the most kinetic energy and solids have the least. Gas molecules are in rapid motion, moving around and colliding with other molecules. There are no significant attractions between gas molecules at normal temperatures and pressures. 


The molecules of a liquid also move around, but they have less kinetic energy than gas molecules. They are much closer together and move more slowly than gas molecules as they move past each other. Attractions between molecules have a bigger effect in the liquid phase than in the gas phase because the molecules are closer together.


As liquid cools attractions between molecules take over and a solid forms, in which molecules are no longer able to move past each other.

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