Physics is an interesting subject with which you can find out how our wonderful world works. At school, children begin to get acquainted with him in the 7th grade, passing the most basic principles of the planet. Despite some difficulties arising in the learning process, you should never stop there and give up. And so that such difficulties arise as little as possible, we’ll talk today about the state of aggregation of bodies. In this article, we give a detailed answer, why are solids difficult to compress, stretch or break?
State of aggregation
To begin with, we will deal with such a concept as the "state of aggregation of the body." This term just characterizes the ability of a substance to maintain its volume and shape. The solid, liquid and gaseous state of substances is isolated. When changing from one state to another, a substance releases or absorbs energy while doing work. We will describe each of the states in order to understand why a solid is difficult to stretch, compress, break, and the same manipulations (not all, of course) with gaseous bodies are not difficult.
Gases
In this state, the molecules of the substance are in chaotic motion with regular collisions with each other. Gaseous bodies are quite easy to compress, as well as to change their volume and shape, since the distance between any randomly taken molecules is quite large. An example of such changes is the presence of gas under pressure in various aerosols. The transition of gas into liquid is called "condensation", and, conversely, from liquid to gas - "evaporation".
Liquid
In this state of aggregation, a substance is not capable of changing its volume as well as gases, but it hardly retains its shape. The molecules in it are already at a closer distance, but still continue to random movement with periodic collisions.
Solids
Well, the most stable state of aggregation is solid. Molecules in this state are so close to each other that they can only oscillate. For this reason, a solid is so difficult to stretch or compress and break. This state of aggregation allows you to keep both volume and shape. Changing a solid into a liquid state is called "melting", but, on the contrary, from liquid to solid - "crystallization".
Conclusion
We hope that this article was useful and interesting for you to read, and you received a detailed and understandable answer why it is difficult to compress, stretch or break a solid body. And we can only wish good luck in studying the amazing world of physics, which hides many more mysteries and secrets!