• Question: do you know the fifth state of matter i do : )

    Asked by taitr to Claire, Elizabeth, Manolis, Mark, Zach on 11 Mar 2014.
    • Photo: Zach Dixon

      Zach Dixon answered on 11 Mar 2014:

      I don’t know a lot about physics! Maybe you can teach me what it is? 🙂

    • Photo: Elizabeth Ratcliffe

      Elizabeth Ratcliffe answered on 11 Mar 2014:

      Hi taitr, is it the Bose-Einstein Condensate (BEC)? I know the four states are solid, liquid, gas and gas-plasma (high temp) and then there are lots of other phases of matter that are known but happen in extreme conditions, the BEC occurs just above absolute zero temperature, aren’t some theoretical too? That’s it my brain hurts now… 😛

    • Photo: Manolis Rovilos

      Manolis Rovilos answered on 12 Mar 2014:

      There are also white dwarfs and neutron stars with exotic matter, not to mention black holes, where no one really knows at which state the matter is…

    • Photo: Claire Vinten

      Claire Vinten answered on 12 Mar 2014:

      Do you mean the Dropletons that have been recently written about in the Nature journal?

      They are very complicated and involve a lot of quantum physics! But we can chat about them if that is what you mean 🙂

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