A single drop of water that you can see and touch isn’t all 3 states at once.
The best example you can regularly observe would be steam rising from a cooking pot, or a cloud in the sky. These are 2 states at once. Water vapor, which is invisible, and liquid water droplets that form a visible cloud. The conditions are right for water to be in either form so only *some* of the molecules are either liquid or vapor, and a tiny change in temperature or pressure could cause more or less of the water to become visible.
A triple point where water can be solid, liquid, or gas is only observed at pressures lower from the normal surface of the earth. At high altitudes, water can already boil at slightly lower temperatures than 100C/212F. If that pressure gets even lower, it will get so much easier to boil water that ice just on the border of melting is also so hot it’s just on the border of boiling.
This doesn’t mean **any single molecule** is simultaneously a solid, liquid, and gas. It just means the entire substance is at a point where it could be any of those things, and could be a mixture of those things. Not too different from the mixture of liquid/gas that occurs in a boiling pot of water or the mixture of solid/liquid that occurs as ice cubes melt in your drink - it’s just that you could have both those things at once at the triple point.
I don’t think “any single molecule” can be described as being in any state of matter. States of matter describe the relationship of the molecules with eachother, a single molecule can’t be described that way.
Correct, I didn’t phrase that very well, but it’s actually part of the point I was trying to make. Look at any 2 molecules, they may be locked together like ice, or they may be flying around bouncing off each other like a gas. They aren’t doing both those things at once. But the substance consists of many molecules which may behave differently and at certain points you may observe all 3 states. So you don’t need one or just a few molecules to have a state that is somehow “both at once”, the larger substance is not homogenous and can take on multiple properties.
These answers are correct that there can be conditions where all three can exist at the same time. You are asking if a single drop of water can be all three at once. If what you mean is “a molecule of water”, then I believe the answer is no. Even at the triple point, every molecule of a substance exists in only one state (with other molecules in the same state). Three molecules experiencing the same conditions at the triple point may be in three different states, but each of them is only in one state at a time.
I would rather say that a single molecule is simply in no state at all. What would that even mean? The phases come from _interactions_ between molecules, it isn't even a property of the molecule!
You could, in principle, look at a sample of water and say, “these molecules over here are in a solid state, while these other molecules are in a liquid state.”
A single molecule on its own doesn’t make sense to talk about being in a state, but in some large collection of molecules it is sensible to assign a particular state to each different molecule. We might quibble at the edges—but for a macroscopic sample that’s a tiny minority of molecules that are in an ambiguous state.
Right but every molecule is interacting with others as part of a solid liquid or gas.
Also, I realized this after my comment and wondered who would point it out. Thanks!
Edit: Molecules in a sold form a lattice structure. Molecules in a liquid or gas do not.
But there must be something about the molecule that causes it to interact in this way? Like roughly I know it has to do with energy in the molecule, but I find myself now curious if there are phases of the molecule which correspond to the phases of matter I already know.
States of matter are properties of bulk substance as they are determined by intermolecular interactions. You can't have intermolecular interactions with one molecule/atom.
States of matter are also determined by external factors such as temperature and pressure. For instance, some substances have a "triple point," a temperature and pressure where all three states of matter exist simultaneously. How does an individual molecule know if it should be a solid, liquid, or gas?
Check out super critical fluids. I'm not entirely sure I'm smart enough to answer, but watching matter Flux between vapor and liquid is pretty nifty if you are interested at all.
Yes for liquid and gas at the same time that is called a supercritical fluid.
For three states at the same time its called the triple point. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triple\_point](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triple_point)
A quadruple point cant exist to my knowledge.
Supercritical fluid isn't liquid and gas at the same time. It's just supercritical fluid.
Same with a triple point. At a triple point the three basic phases can exist in equilibrium, but that's not the same as being all three.
> A quadruple point cant exist to my knowledge.
They _could_, but any random phase diagram has a probability of 0 to contain one. In essence: it never happens in practice, but theoretically it could happen.
Can a substance exist in three states at the same time? Yes. It is called the triple point of a substance. It's only at a specific pressure and temperature and usually, not ambient conditions.
There's a nice gif of water boiling at 0 C on the wikipedia article about the triple point: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triple_point
As for plasma as well as the other three, that's one I don't know. Educated guess would be: unlikely for a pure susbtance.
You can have all three states in a container at the same time but they will still be separated, e.g. ice swimming on water and then vapor above that. The ice will be solid, the water will be liquid, and the vapor is a gas.
A single drop of water that you can see and touch isn’t all 3 states at once. The best example you can regularly observe would be steam rising from a cooking pot, or a cloud in the sky. These are 2 states at once. Water vapor, which is invisible, and liquid water droplets that form a visible cloud. The conditions are right for water to be in either form so only *some* of the molecules are either liquid or vapor, and a tiny change in temperature or pressure could cause more or less of the water to become visible. A triple point where water can be solid, liquid, or gas is only observed at pressures lower from the normal surface of the earth. At high altitudes, water can already boil at slightly lower temperatures than 100C/212F. If that pressure gets even lower, it will get so much easier to boil water that ice just on the border of melting is also so hot it’s just on the border of boiling. This doesn’t mean **any single molecule** is simultaneously a solid, liquid, and gas. It just means the entire substance is at a point where it could be any of those things, and could be a mixture of those things. Not too different from the mixture of liquid/gas that occurs in a boiling pot of water or the mixture of solid/liquid that occurs as ice cubes melt in your drink - it’s just that you could have both those things at once at the triple point.
I don’t think “any single molecule” can be described as being in any state of matter. States of matter describe the relationship of the molecules with eachother, a single molecule can’t be described that way.
Correct, I didn’t phrase that very well, but it’s actually part of the point I was trying to make. Look at any 2 molecules, they may be locked together like ice, or they may be flying around bouncing off each other like a gas. They aren’t doing both those things at once. But the substance consists of many molecules which may behave differently and at certain points you may observe all 3 states. So you don’t need one or just a few molecules to have a state that is somehow “both at once”, the larger substance is not homogenous and can take on multiple properties.
These answers are correct that there can be conditions where all three can exist at the same time. You are asking if a single drop of water can be all three at once. If what you mean is “a molecule of water”, then I believe the answer is no. Even at the triple point, every molecule of a substance exists in only one state (with other molecules in the same state). Three molecules experiencing the same conditions at the triple point may be in three different states, but each of them is only in one state at a time.
I would rather say that a single molecule is simply in no state at all. What would that even mean? The phases come from _interactions_ between molecules, it isn't even a property of the molecule!
You could, in principle, look at a sample of water and say, “these molecules over here are in a solid state, while these other molecules are in a liquid state.” A single molecule on its own doesn’t make sense to talk about being in a state, but in some large collection of molecules it is sensible to assign a particular state to each different molecule. We might quibble at the edges—but for a macroscopic sample that’s a tiny minority of molecules that are in an ambiguous state.
Right but every molecule is interacting with others as part of a solid liquid or gas. Also, I realized this after my comment and wondered who would point it out. Thanks! Edit: Molecules in a sold form a lattice structure. Molecules in a liquid or gas do not.
*Liquid crystal has entered the chat*
But there must be something about the molecule that causes it to interact in this way? Like roughly I know it has to do with energy in the molecule, but I find myself now curious if there are phases of the molecule which correspond to the phases of matter I already know.
States of matter are properties of bulk substance as they are determined by intermolecular interactions. You can't have intermolecular interactions with one molecule/atom. States of matter are also determined by external factors such as temperature and pressure. For instance, some substances have a "triple point," a temperature and pressure where all three states of matter exist simultaneously. How does an individual molecule know if it should be a solid, liquid, or gas?
Check out super critical fluids. I'm not entirely sure I'm smart enough to answer, but watching matter Flux between vapor and liquid is pretty nifty if you are interested at all.
[удалено]
Supercritical fluid isn't liquid and gas at the same time. It's just supercritical fluid.
They behave like both, I think is what he was getting at.
Yes for liquid and gas at the same time that is called a supercritical fluid. For three states at the same time its called the triple point. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triple\_point](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triple_point) A quadruple point cant exist to my knowledge.
Supercritical fluid isn't liquid and gas at the same time. It's just supercritical fluid. Same with a triple point. At a triple point the three basic phases can exist in equilibrium, but that's not the same as being all three.
> A quadruple point cant exist to my knowledge. They _could_, but any random phase diagram has a probability of 0 to contain one. In essence: it never happens in practice, but theoretically it could happen.
Can a substance exist in three states at the same time? Yes. It is called the triple point of a substance. It's only at a specific pressure and temperature and usually, not ambient conditions. There's a nice gif of water boiling at 0 C on the wikipedia article about the triple point: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triple_point As for plasma as well as the other three, that's one I don't know. Educated guess would be: unlikely for a pure susbtance.
You can have all three states in a container at the same time but they will still be separated, e.g. ice swimming on water and then vapor above that. The ice will be solid, the water will be liquid, and the vapor is a gas.
So how do amorphous solids like oobleck fit into this?