The Seven States of Matter

Seven states of matter? I know, I know, we're all taught in grade school that there are only 3 states of matter, right? There are solids, liquids, and gases. For instance, in the case of H20, it can take the form of:

Solid - Ice
Liquid - Water
Gas - Steam

However, there are actually four other states of matter that exist. Understanding them all fully can be a rather complex exercise, so let's just examine the basics instead.

First of all, the fourth state of matter, after gas, is plasma. Most people are familiar with plasma primarily due to its prevalence in plasma screen TV's. Plasma is, essentially, an ionized gas. This means that plasma is gas that has become so hot that some electrons have become separated and have joined other nuclei. Plasma can act is bizarre, unpredictable ways, and is therefore a somewhat dangerous form of matter.

The next state of matter, after plasma, is the beam state. This is a somewhat difficult state of matter to understand, without a great deal of background scientific knowledge. For all intents and purposes, what's important to understand about beam matter is that its particle makeup acts much differently than that of solids, liquids, gases, o r plasmas. In all of those other states of matter, the constituent particles act in seemingly random patterns. In the beam state, however, the particles all act in a sort of synchronized harmony, all working towards the same end. Hence the term "beam." Beam is also different because it is not a heat-exchange form of matter. In other words, all the other states involve an exchange of heat energy, but the beam state does not.

The sixth state of matter, which is actually much lower on the scale than any of the previously discussed five, is called Bose-Einstein condensate. This is also called the zero state of matter. It takes place when matter is frozen to a temperature that is so low that it almost reaches absolute zero. In this state the matter almost ceases to be, and the nuclei pile on top of each-other.

The final state of matter, the seventh, is by far the most ethereal concept. It is the thought wave state of matter. The thought wave moves more quickly and is more efficient than even beam matter. It is an idea, however, that is far too complex to deal with exclusively in one short article. In order to find out more about the thought wave state of matter, one needs to do some extensive background reading. It is, however, a truly remarkable subject and learning about it in greater detail is extraordinarily fascinating.