Gases are more prone to expansion and contraction than liquid. The biggest change in the volume in your thermometer was probably in the water or air

Question

Zander Frazier

Physics

29 December, 21:01

Gases are more prone to expansion and contraction than liquid. The biggest change in the volume in your thermometer was probably in the water or air

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Answers (1)

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Kyle Garrison · Answer 1

In the air

Explanation:

There are three states of matter:

- Solids: in solids, the particles are tightly bond together by strong intermolecular forces, so they cannot move freely - they can only vibrate around their fixed position

- Liquids: in liquids, particles are more free to move, however there are still some intermolecular forces keeping them close to each other

- Gases: in gases, particles are completely free to move, as the intermolecular forces between them are negligible

For this reason, it is generally easier to compress/expand the volume of a gas with respect to the volume of a liquid.

In this problem, we are comparing water (which is a liquid) with air (which is a gas). From what we said above, this means that the change in volume is larger in the air rather than in the water.