Gas is a state of matter with unique properties such as expansion to fill any space, ease of compression, and little resistance to objects passing through it. When transformed from a liquid or solid, the volume of the substance changes drastically.
A gas is one of the four states of matter and has properties that distinguish it from the other three states: solid, liquid and plasma. Regardless of the molecules present, the properties of the gas, such as its ability to expand, will remain the same as long as the state remains unchanged. Many molecules can exist in different states and it is the properties of compression, strength and easily manipulated volume that define what it is.
One of the properties of gas is that it will always expand to fill whatever area it occupies. Regardless of how few or how many gas molecules and how big or small the space may be, a gas will always expand or condense until it is distributed throughout the container or space. This property gives the gas another unique feature; since it can expand to the size of its container, the volume of a gas is equal to the volume of the container in which it is sealed. As the gas expands, the molecules can stick to whatever surface they touch, making them able to expand to the edges of the container.
Ease of compression is another of the distinctive properties of gas. Objects moving through the gas act on it, rather than the gas acting on the object. This can be seen when an object such as a jet is moving rapidly through the gases of the atmosphere. As the jet reaches speeds approaching the speed of sound, this fast motion compresses the gas around it and creates waves. This transformation of a gas’s shape only occurs at incredibly high speeds, as another of the properties of gas is that it will generally offer little resistance to objects passing through it at a slower speed.
When a liquid or solid is transformed into a gas, there is a drastic change in the volume of the substance, and this demonstrates another of the properties of the gas. Hydrogen and oxygen combine to form water, which exists in three different states. When frozen, it is in the solid form of ice. Thawing ice and turning it into water doesn’t result in a drastic change in the volume of the substance, but boiling water and turning it into gas creates a very different scenario. The transformation between liquid and gas causes a change in the volume of the substance which can be up to 800 times greater than the original liquid or solid form.
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