solids and plasma

Which best explains why a crystal is incompressible?

There is little, if any, space left between its adjacent molecules.

Which is an example of plasmas in nature?

Auroras

How does the motion of particles in the sun's plasma compare to the motion of particles in a solid?

Particles in the plasma move randomly, but particles in a solid vibrate in one place.

Substance X has a fixed volume, and the attraction between its particles is strong. Substance Y has widely spread out particles and can be compressed. What can most likely be concluded about these substances?

Substance X is a solid, and substance Y is a plasma.

Which reason best explains why plasmas are good conductors of electricity?

They have mobile charged particles.

A group of students are wandering around a room. When their teacher claps, the students sit down wherever they are. This situation best models the formation of which type of solid?

an amorphous solid because the particles do not have a regular structure

Temperature depends on the average kinetic energy of the particles in a sample. How does this help with explaining why a plasma-based light does not have a high temperature?

most particles in the plasma are heavy and slow

A plasma that has particles that never collide frequently enough to exchange kinetic energy and never reach a temperature equal to the surroundings is categorized as a

nonthermal plasma.

What are thermal plasmas?

plasmas that reach a temperature equal to their surroundings

Which is an example of a plasma that occurs in nature?

the radiant sun

The repeating subunits that are responsible for the shape of a crystal are known as

unit cells.

Which description best characterizes the motion of particles in a solid?

vibrating around fixed positions

What happens when the kinetic energy of molecules increases so much that electrons are released by the atoms, creating a swirling gas of positive ions and negative electrons?

Matter changes to a plasma state.

Which state of matter is characterized by ionized particles, no definite shape or volume, and good electrical conductivity?

plasma

Which low-energy state of condensed matter is characterized by structural rigidity and resistance to changes of shape or volume?

solid