|
Matter
and atomic structure
Francine
Taylor Campbell, Contributor
 |
| Winston
Jones High School students (from
left, front row) Monique Brooks;
Kemorie Davis; Carlene Brown;
Claudine Trench and Tameka Hinds
finished as overall winners of
the school's Paper Quiz 2005.
Standing with the girls are (from
left, back row) Bobbette Barrett,
head of the school's Language
Arts Department and The Gleaner's
Tasia Cargill and Shernet Reid.
The awards ceremony was held in
Pratville, Manchester, in April.
- Carlington Wilmot Photo |
POINTS
TO NOTE
* Matter has mass
and occupies space. The quantity of
matter in a material is determined
by its mass.
*
The state that matter occupies depends
on how the particles in it are packed.
*
The three states of matter are solid,
liquid and gas.
*
Matter can be changed from one form
to another by increasing or decreasing
the kinetic energy of the material.
*
Processes, such as freezing, melting
and boiling, can change the form that
matter takes.
*
All substances are made of atoms.
These combine to form elements, which
later form compounds.
Students
must be able to describe the differences
between the states of matter.
Look
at the common example of ice, water
and steam and apply the characteristics
of each state to them. By doing this
you will better understand the concepts
(See Table A).
When
the temperature is increased, for
example, with a piece of ice, particles
gain energy and will begin to move
changing the regular ordered structure.
This represents the process of melting
and the ice will change to water.
Further increase in temperature will
change the water to steam (gas) as
the particles get more energy to move.
This is called boiling. To reverse
this process one decreases the temperature
by cooling (condensation) and freezing.
These represent the way in which the
states of matter can be changed from
one to the form to the other. Sublimation
describes the change directly from
solid to gas.
OSMOSIS
AND DIFFUSION
Q1.
Show, using a diagram, how matter
can be changed from one state to another
(name the processes involved).
The
processes of diffusion and osmosis
prove that matter is made up of particles.
If
two gases in separate jars are allowed
to mix, then the gases will move from
one jar to the other until they mix
completely. This is DIFFUSION.
When
particles move from one area to another
through a semi-permeable membrane,
for example, in a solution where the
solvent moves from a region of low
to high concentration, this is OSMOSIS.
Q2.
Why is heat required to change a solid
into a liquid?
Q3.
Explain why Baygon sprayed at the
front of a room can be found at the
back of the room after a period of
time.
Use
your chemistry texts to review this
topic and answer the questions.
|
Table A
|
| PROPERTY |
Solid |
Liquid |
Gas
|
|
VOLUME |
Fixed
volume |
Fixed
volume |
Volume
changes to fill space |
| SHAPE
|
Defined
shape
|
Takes
on the container's shape |
Fills
entire container, no
defined shape |
| PARTICLE
ARRANGEMENT |
Particles
are closely packed in a regular
repeated structure |
Particles
are arranged randomly with small
spaces |
Particles
are arranged randomly with large
spaces |
|
FORCE OF ATTRACTION |
Strong
attraction between particles |
Moderate
attraction between particles |
Weak
attraction between particles |
|
ENERGY OF PARTICLES |
Particles
have little kinetic energy and
only vibrate in fixed positions |
Particles
have medium amounts of energy
which allows them to move, but
not to separate from each other
|
Particles
possess large amounts of kinetic
energy which causes them to move
rapidly and occupy any available
space |
EXPANSION/
COMPRESSION |
Difficult
to expand or compress |
Can
be expanded or compressed |
Easy
to expand or compress |
REPRESENTATION
OF PARTICLES |
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx |
x
x x x x x x x x x |
x
x x x x
x x
|
*
Francine Taylor-Campbell is
an independent contributor.
|
