States of Matter

Everything around us is made of matter, and matter can exist in three main states: solid, liquid and gas. A solid, like a rock or an ice cube, has a fixed shape and cannot flow. A liquid, like water or orange juice, doesn’t have a fixed shape — it flows and takes the shape of whatever container it’s in. A gas, like the air we breathe or steam from a kettle, spreads out to fill any space it’s given. Matter can change state when temperature changes. When you heat ice it melts into water (solid to liquid). Heat water further and it evaporates into steam (liquid to gas). Cooling reverses this — steam condenses back to water, and water freezes back to ice. These changes happen all around us every single day!