Friday, 23 August 2013

[LESSON 1] Matter


Do you know, anything that occupies space and possesses mass is called matter? For example, air, earth, animals, trees, even atoms.


There are 3 states of matter; solid, liquid and gas.

Each matter is made up of atom. Which means there are atoms everywhere within our solid, liquid and gas.

For solid, such as tables, woods, books, glass, etc... the atoms are closely packed together. Because of that, they can only vibrate and rotate about a fixed position. Just imagine the situation where you are in the bus that full with people or at the stadium. At the stadium (for example) you could not easily change the seat once the game is begin as you will disturb another spectators. As the game begin, the spectators will begin to cheer their team up at their fixed position.. They will scream out loud until no voice come out after the game (joking!). The same principle applies for atoms in solid. Each atom could not easily change it's position. Thus, they have no choice but stay at the same spot, vibrate and rotate at the same position. Since they spend most of their time at the same spot, therefore the atoms now are in an orderly arrangement.


[souce: google picture] an example of stadium full with spectators

{FAQ}How to draw the arrangement of atoms in solid?
For your information, we actually could not draw the exact arrangement of atoms. Why? That is because our atoms is really tiny (and we cannot observe it with our naked eyes). Thus, it is IMPOSSIBLE to actually draw it. But we can draw the representation of atoms in solid although it might not be 100% exactly the same compared to when we observe with electron microscope.
The way I draw it is like this. [refer to the video below] Note that you should draw each circle with the same size as possible and closely next to each other. Mine might slightly have mistakes (pardon me)!



The next one is liquids. The atoms in Liquids, such as water, vinegar, rain, etc are closely packed together but different from solid, the atoms now are freely to move throughout the liquid and at the same time, they still vibrate and rotate. The atoms also not in an orderly arrangement as they are freely to move. Liquids also can take the shape of the container as shown in the google pictures below.

      
See, no matter what shape the container is, it is the natural order of liquids to follow the shape of the container, which makes liquid is more flexible than solid.

{FAQ}How to draw the arrangement of atoms in liquid?


Unlike solid, the atoms in gas are too far apart and thus, they can move anywhere within the container. Let us refer back to our first example above (stadium situation). During the tournament, of course, there would be the players, the referees, the sponsors and many more. But lets focus on those at the field, the players. Normally, the players will move everywhere around the field carrying the ball. Their ultimate goal is the "goal". In order to achieve that, they will move, run, etc anywhere within the field (which in chemistry term, it would be container).
[souce: google image]

{FAQ}How to draw the arrangement of atoms in gas?



The principles/ rules for atoms in solid/ liquid/ gas is important in order to fully understand the basic chemistry. 

Thus, let's practice!

*Chemistry Is Fun*