"It may be real, but it's pretty boring," Stef responded with a smile.
After a moment, a questioning look came over her face. "You know, I think the states of matter is part of the first chapter." And, sure enough, after she went back to her book, the first chapter did have a section on the three states of matter: gases, liquids, and solids. Stefanie took out a blank notebook she had bought for the class and took her first notes.
Gases: spread out to fill their containers, don't have their own shape, you can compress or expand them, atoms and molecules relatively spread out.
Hmmm. She should probably put down somewhere what atoms and molecules are. She knew from high school science, but they were a little hard to define. Down at the bottom of the same page she wrote down the words:
Atoms: the most basic building blocks of matter (=stuff), the smallest you can divide things with them keeping their basic properties.
Molecules: combinations of atoms
That seemed good enough. Then she returned to liquids and gases.
Liquids: take on the shape of their containers but you can't compress or expand them, atoms and molecules closer together than gases, but not as compact as solids
Solids: have their own shape and you can't compress or expand them, atoms and molecules more compact than liquids or gases
"There," Stefanie said out loud to herself. "Not interesting, but not particularly hard either."
She wrote one more paragraph under her definition of solids: "If you add enough heat to a solid, it will eventually become a liquid. If you add enough heat to a liquid, it will eventually become a gas. If you cool down a gas enough, if will eventually become a liquid. If you cool down a liquid enough, it will eventually become a solid. This is true of everything.
Showing posts with label states of matter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label states of matter. Show all posts
Monday, February 6, 2012
Sunday, February 5, 2012
Snot is heterogeneous 3
... "A homogeneous mixture," her mother continued, "would be one where everything was mixed together without any chunks, like a Mocha Java or a grande coffee with cream."
But before she could remember what a Mocha Java was, Stefanie found her mother moving eerily toward her with a rather large spoon of onion soup. If she wasn't mistaken, there was also a bit of cabbage and a random hair from their dog, Rosie, on the spoon.
She awoke with a start. She was back in her house at college. All that was left of her dream was the chemistry book on the floor and an unfortunate smell of onion emanating from the kitchen.
Hoping not to find Sigmund Freud lurking about the sorority, she cautiously moved toward the kitchen. Thankfully, it was only Jules, one of her suite mates that apparently had an odd attraction to onions.
"Hey Jules," Stef decided to ask. "You took chemistry, right?"
"Yeah," she answered questioningly. "I'm studying to be a doctor."
"Would you say that snot is a heterogeneous mixture?"
It was admittedly a surprising question to be asked at anytime, not only when cooking onion soup. And it was not the sort of question Jules would have expected of Stefanie on any occasion.
"Yeah," she finally answered. "I mean, like, I guess it would depend how well the stuff in the snot was mixed together. But, like, if there were any bogies in it, it would definitely be heterogeneous." After another pause, Jules added, "You taking chemistry?"
"Yes. It really ticks me off. It seems like half the things I might want to do with my life require chemistry. I'm thinking of going into athletic training or sports therapy or something. They all require chemistry."
"Yeah, like they call chemistry 'the central science' because it connects to so many other things. Anything to do with the body has to do with the stuff that makes up the body and how that stuff works. That's chemistry."
"I'll just deal with it," Stef answered. "I guess I always thought it was more for scientists, not the real world."
"Chemistry's pretty real. Like right now I'm heating up the liquid in this soup. That's chemistry and that's real. If I heat it up enough, the liquid will steam off into a gas. If I cool it down in the freezer, it will turn into a solid. That's all real. And the three states of matter is chemistry stuff."
"It may be real, but it's pretty boring," Stef responded with a smile...
But before she could remember what a Mocha Java was, Stefanie found her mother moving eerily toward her with a rather large spoon of onion soup. If she wasn't mistaken, there was also a bit of cabbage and a random hair from their dog, Rosie, on the spoon.
She awoke with a start. She was back in her house at college. All that was left of her dream was the chemistry book on the floor and an unfortunate smell of onion emanating from the kitchen.
Hoping not to find Sigmund Freud lurking about the sorority, she cautiously moved toward the kitchen. Thankfully, it was only Jules, one of her suite mates that apparently had an odd attraction to onions.
"Hey Jules," Stef decided to ask. "You took chemistry, right?"
"Yeah," she answered questioningly. "I'm studying to be a doctor."
"Would you say that snot is a heterogeneous mixture?"
It was admittedly a surprising question to be asked at anytime, not only when cooking onion soup. And it was not the sort of question Jules would have expected of Stefanie on any occasion.
"Yeah," she finally answered. "I mean, like, I guess it would depend how well the stuff in the snot was mixed together. But, like, if there were any bogies in it, it would definitely be heterogeneous." After another pause, Jules added, "You taking chemistry?"
"Yes. It really ticks me off. It seems like half the things I might want to do with my life require chemistry. I'm thinking of going into athletic training or sports therapy or something. They all require chemistry."
"Yeah, like they call chemistry 'the central science' because it connects to so many other things. Anything to do with the body has to do with the stuff that makes up the body and how that stuff works. That's chemistry."
"I'll just deal with it," Stef answered. "I guess I always thought it was more for scientists, not the real world."
"Chemistry's pretty real. Like right now I'm heating up the liquid in this soup. That's chemistry and that's real. If I heat it up enough, the liquid will steam off into a gas. If I cool it down in the freezer, it will turn into a solid. That's all real. And the three states of matter is chemistry stuff."
"It may be real, but it's pretty boring," Stef responded with a smile...
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