Can Matter Change Its State?

Matter is present everywhere. You’re probably touching or looking at it now. But will it retain its shape forever in all conditions? Can matter change its state? Let’s find out more about it.

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What is Matter?

Matter is a substance that possesses mass and occupies space. Chemistry studies it, and this study has various aspects and one of the important aspects is its classification depending on its chemical composition into three main categories i.e. elements, compounds, and mixtures. Which further classifies on the basis of its characteristic properties into metals, non-metals, and metalloids. It can be in liquid, gaseous, solid or plasma state.

Can Matter Change Its Shape?

The answer is ‘Yes’. It can definitely change its shape, size, and volume. For examples, water turns into ice upon freezing, here the form of water converts from the liquid state into the solid state; the matter itself doesn’t change but it transforms its shape. The components of water remain the same just the shape changes. Evaporation changes the form of water from liquid state to gaseous state.

Its physical state depends on the physical conditions such as temperature, climate, humidity, etc. Usually, in order to change the state of liquids into a solid state, one reduces the temperature. Generally, liquids are less dense than solids because their molecules have little or no space in between them. The freezing process compacts the molecules into a smaller space.

The process of changing a matter from solid state to a liquid state is Melting or Fusion. Whereas, the process of converting it from liquid state to solid state is Freezing. Vaporization or boiling is another process that turns a matter into a gaseous state from liquid state. It can turn from gaseous form to liquid form with the help of condensation.

Sublimation is a process which transforms it from solid form to gaseous form directly. Whereas deposition transforms gaseous state to solid state. Ionization is a process that converts gas into plasma. Lastly, the process of recombination changes plasma into gas. The term phase is a synonym for state of matter, although a system can contain several immiscible phases of the same state. Solid, liquid, gaseous and plasma are the four states of substances.

Question For You

Q1. Which of the following process converts solid form of matter to a gaseous form?

1. Sublimation
2. Condensation
3. Fusion
4. Deposition

Sol: Sublimation.

Sublimation is a phase transition of a matter that changes it directly from the solid state to liquid state skipping the liquid transition phase.

Q2. What does the process of Deposition do?

1. Converts solid substance to liquid state
2. Changes gaseous substance to solid state
3. Turns liquid substance to gas state
4. Converts liquid substance to solid state

Sol: Deposition is a process that converts gaseous substance to a solid substance. Deposition is a transition phase of a substance that changes the substance directly into the solid state from liquid state, skipping the liquid transition phase.