Nine States of Matter? The Lesser Known States of Matter

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Traditionally in school we are taught that there are only four states of matter: solid, liquid, gas, and plasma. Fortunately this is not true as that would be boring. There are also at least 4 other-less common states and Icontest a fifth. These are Bose-Einstein condensate, photonic molecules, quark-gluon plasma, superconductors, and superfluids. They all have unique properties that clearly distinguish differences between them and the traditional four states. These breakthroughs could help us in the future and have some practical uses right now.

My personal favorite state of matter is actually Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC). This state was first achieved in 1995 (predicted in 1924 by Albert Einstein) by firing photons directly at the matter that you are wishing to cool. Because the photons colliding into the partials slowed their velocity which is essentially the same as heat for a molecule you can get the matter down to a few billionths of a degree above absolute zero which “is the minimum possible temperature” (Absolute zero) at which all movement stops. When you fire photons (light partials) into this ultra-cold substance light can slow to thirty eight miles per hour. The tell-tale sign that a substance is in BEC is when the millions of atoms that are in that state act as if they were one atom. Just like lasers actually, all the same color and all going in the same direction.

The discovery that we can make photons act strongly together could make developing quantum computers a lot easier. this discovery is the most recent of the five having only happened last year. Normally photons don't interact “Getting photons to stick together is not easy because they normally pass through each other without interacting”(Johnson), but...

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...top spinning. heat can go through superfluids at a tremendous rate, in fact scientists have reason to believe that in the center of the neutron stars that remain after a super nova could be found superfluid conducting heat away and cooling the star rapidly.

In conclusion Bose-Einstein condensate, quark-gluon plasma, superconductors, and superfluids are all different states of matter, based on the different properties that they show when they reach certain temperatures. Photonic molecules however are likely not to be a new state of matter because to be a state of matter they have to be matter and photons are not matter. They are however a new way that light particles react and could therefore bring to light new things. These findings should be taught in schools because they are cool and also because we should not be ignorant of new findings in the realm of science.

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