States of Matter Quiz
Questions: 16 · 10 minutes
1. What distinguishes plasma from an ordinary gas?
Plasma has a fixed shape even when removed from a container.
Plasma consists only of tightly packed neutral particles.
Plasma cannot conduct electricity or respond to magnetic fields.
Plasma contains charged particles, including ions and free electrons.
2. A pure substance is melting at its melting point while heating continues. Where does the added energy primarily go during the change?
It immediately raises the temperature at a constant rate.
It stops particle motion until melting is complete.
It creates additional matter inside the sample.
It helps overcome attractions and rearrange particles into the liquid state.
3. Which comparison between a liquid and a gas is accurate?
Both have a fixed shape and a fixed volume.
A gas has a fixed volume, but a liquid fills all available space.
A liquid has a definite volume, while a gas expands to fill its container.
A liquid is generally easier to compress because its particles are farther apart.
4. How are particles typically arranged and moving in a liquid?
They are locked in place and cannot move at all.
They remain close together but can move past one another.
They are widely separated and move independently through all available space.
They form a rigid repeating arrangement while flowing as a group.
5. An ice cube is melting in a drink. What is happening to the ice?
It is releasing enough energy to become a more ordered solid.
It is absorbing energy as its structure changes from solid to liquid.
It is changing directly from a solid into a gas.
It is gaining new particles from the surrounding drink.
6. An unknown sample keeps the same volume but changes shape when poured into a different container. Which state of matter best fits these observations?
Solid, because solids always take the shape of their containers
Gas, because gases keep a definite volume when transferred
Plasma, because plasma always remains at a fixed volume
Liquid, because liquids have a definite volume but no definite shape
7. Water droplets appear on the outside of a cold glass. Where does this liquid water mainly come from?
Water passes directly through the solid glass.
Oxygen in the air changes chemically into water.
Water vapor in the surrounding air condenses on the cold surface.
The cold surface converts its own material into liquid water.
8. On a cold morning, water vapor forms frost directly on a window without first becoming liquid. What is this change called?
Deposition
Evaporation
Freezing
Sublimation
9. A sealed container of liquid is heated until all the liquid becomes gas. Assuming nothing enters or leaves, how does the total mass compare with the initial mass?
It increases because gas occupies more space.
It decreases because gas particles have less mass.
It stays the same because the same matter remains in the container.
It becomes zero once no liquid remains.
10. Why can a gas usually be compressed much more than a liquid?
Gas particles become smaller when pressure is applied.
Gas particles have much more empty space between them.
Liquid particles have no motion, so they resist pressure.
Gas particles disappear temporarily under pressure.
11. As a liquid freezes, what usually happens to its particles?
They separate widely and move freely through the container.
They become more constrained and mainly vibrate around fixed positions.
They stop existing until the solid melts again.
They change into a different chemical element.
12. Someone opens a bottle of perfume, and its scent is soon noticed across the room. Which process best explains this?
Gas particles diffuse through the air from higher to lower concentration.
Perfume particles remain still while the air changes into perfume.
The scent travels only because perfume particles lose their mass.
The perfume freezes into invisible crystals that spread across the room.
13. The tip of a sealed syringe is blocked while its plunger is pushed inward. What best explains the change in the trapped air?
The air particles lose all their mass.
The air changes into a liquid as soon as the plunger moves.
The particles are forced closer together, reducing the gas volume.
The number of air particles increases inside the syringe.
14. A shallow puddle slowly disappears on a mild day even though the water never boils. What best explains this?
Some higher-energy particles escape from the liquid surface into the air.
Every particle in the puddle reaches the boiling point at the same time.
The liquid changes directly into solid particles too small to see.
The water loses mass because its particles are destroyed by sunlight.
15. A piece of dry ice becomes smaller while producing carbon dioxide gas, without forming a liquid puddle. What change of state is occurring?
Melting
Deposition
Condensation
Sublimation
16. Which property best describes a solid under ordinary conditions?
It has a definite shape and a definite volume.
It has a definite volume but takes the shape of its container.
It expands to fill the entire volume of its container.
It has neither particles nor measurable volume.