Solids Exercises

Let’s see how much you’ve picked up with these experiments and the reading – answer as best as you can. (No peeking at the answers until you’re done!) Just relax and see what jumps to mind when you read the question. You can also print these out and jot down your answers in your science notebook.
[am4show have=’p8;p9;p13;p40;’ guest_error=’Guest error message’ user_error=’User error message’ ]

Click here to download the K-8 Exercises & Answers in PDF format.

1. What is the lowest energy form of matter found naturally?

2. What is the highest energy form of matter?

3. Why do many solids form crystals?

4. If I bend a pencil so far that it breaks, what have I done to it?

5. I love to play with paper clips. However, by the time I’m done with them they are all bent out of shape. (Paper clips run when they see me coming!) How can you explain that using a term from this lesson.

6. Why do crystals tend to break along specific lines?

Need answers?

[/am4show]

Let’s see how you did! If you didn’t get a few of these, don’t let it stress you out – it just means you need to play with more experiments in this area. We’re all works in progress, and we have our entire lifetime to puzzle together the mysteries of the universe!

Answers:
[am4show have=’p8;p9;p13;p40;’ guest_error=’Guest error message’ user_error=’User error message’ ]

1. Solids. Remember BEC is only found in science labs.

2. Plasma.

3. The molecules are pulled so tightly together that they tend to fall into specific patterns.

4. I have bent it beyond its tension and/or compression point.

5. I have bent the paper clip beyond its point of elasticity so it no longer snaps back to its original shape.

6. Crystals break along cleavage lines which are there due to the way the molecules lined up when the crystal formed.

[/am4show]