Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Wondering about the five states of matter.

I have been wondering about the five states of matter.  Does it really matter?  Well it matters to me.  (Now, wasn't that clever of me working the word matter in three times with two different meanings - grin.)  OK, how many of you can name them?  I could quickly name three but then came up with a fourth, but then I found out that there may be more.

Let's see, everyone knows the three states of matter: solids, liquids, and gas.  The fourth one is plasma.  Everyone is familiar with the first three, and since I worked around fabrication industries, I have seen plasma cutting machines.  For those of you who don't know what plasma is (not blood plasma), I will try to explain.  A plasma is cloud of electrically charged atomic nuclei (ions) and electrons.  But then, the scientists have come up with a fifth state of matter which they named the Bose-Einstein condensate in honor of the two who wrote a scientific paper about the phenomenon.

The following graphs represent this phenomenon:


The first graph at the left is just before the appearance of a Bose-Einstein condensate.  The middle graph is just after the appearance of the condensate and the last one on the right is after further evaporation, leaving a sample of nearly pure condensate.

I know that it is hard to understand this phenomenon, but for me to understand it better, I had to write about it.  Science fascinates me and there is just so much stuff that we humans do not know and may never know, but at least we try to learn what ever we can and strive to understand the mysterious.  Now, don't let your condensation evaporate and have a really great day, you hear?

13 comments:

  1. I got the first 3 states of matter right off the bat, but it hurts my brain to think of the other 2! But now they are locked someplace in my memory in case I ever go on Jeopardy and get asked to name the 5 states of matter!

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    1. I guess I just come up with a lot of useless knowledge, but maybe I can get some of you interested and search the internet for additional information.

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  2. I used a plasma cutter once, it worked really well. Having said that I did not know what plasma was and to be honest I still don't totally grasp it... but it worked well!

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    1. Plasma cutters can make short work of cutting a piece out of steel. I, for one, prefer water jet cutters. They can cut any solid material.

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    2. My bro uses one for metal roofs.

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  3. Well, I don't have a clue as to what you're talking about, but those graphs are pretty and colorful ;-)

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    1. Yes, thoughs graphs brighten up an otherwise boring blog.

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  4. I like the water cutting tool as well. Seems like a very practical piece of equipment, if you ask me.

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    1. It is amazing what a high pressure stream of water can do.

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  5. My brain hurts,,, lol. Just saw on the news where a swarm of bees joined a baseball game,,, in the field... lololol

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    1. I bet those baseball players were all a buzzzzz...

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  6. I knew the first four and am still pondering the fifth.

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    1. Same with me. I learn a lot when researching for a blog.

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