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Odor is the way a solid smells.

When you bite into a

Properties of Solid fresh apple, the apple might smell sweet. A rotten
apple might have its own rancid smell, too. Yuck!

Taste is another observable property of solids. For


TABALBA, Alyssa Shane V. STEM 12 BSN 2
example, red apples tend to be sweet, while green
apples are usually sour.
What Are Solids? General Characteristics of Solid State
A solid is a material that has tightly packed Solid state is determined by following
molecules and keeps its own size and shape. An characteristics. They are:
apple is one example of a solid. When you eat an
apple, you probably don't think about how many • Definite mass, volume, and shape
properties, or observable or measurable • Short Intermolecular distance
characteristics, that apple has. There are a lot! Let's
• Strong Intermolecular Forces
explore some now.
• The constituent particles remain fixed at their
positions and can only oscillate about their mean
Observing Physical Properties positions
You can observe the properties of a solid in two • Solids are incompressible and rigid
ways: by using your five senses or by using
measurement tools. Let's start by looking at the • High Density
properties that you can observe with your sense of
sight, taste, smell, hearing, and touch.

One of these properties is shape. Solids can take ELECTRICAL AND THERMAL
on many different shapes. They can be short, long,
flat, thick, rectangular, oval, and so forth. CONDUCTIVITY
Another property is color. The color of a solid is one
of its observable properties. Red, for instance, is the
color of an apple.

Texture identifies how a solid feels. An apple might


feel smooth on the outside and grainy on the inside.

Hardness refers to how hard it is to bend, dent or


otherwise change the shape of the solid. For
instance, a penny is very hard in comparison to
Play-Doh.

Luster describes a solid's ability to reflect light. An


object with high luster, such as crystal and gold, is
sparkly or shimmery in the light.

Buoyancy measures a solid's ability to float in a


liquid. Solids will float when they're less dense than
the liquid they're in. You can test an apple's
buoyancy by placing it in a container of water. Since Electricity is essentially a flow of electrons from one
place to another, and in metallic bonds the outer
the apple is less dense, it will float.
electrons are relatively free to move between
adjacent atoms.
This electron mobility means it is easy for an Such solids would be expected to have low heat
electrical current to move from one end of a piece of conductivity and would be called heat insulators.
metal to the other. When an electron is introduced
at one end of a piece of wire by an electric current, Example of thermal conductivity is pots and pans in
this causes electrons to move from one to another your kitchen that is good in absorbing heat from the
metal atom continuously down the wire, allowing stove or oven and passes it on to the food that is
the current to flow. being cooked.

In other solids, though, the electrons are engaged MALLEABILITY AND


in the covalent or ionic bonds and therefore are not
able to conduct electricity, or do so only poorly. DUCTILITY
Materials that do not conduct electricity are called
electrical insulators.

Malleability describes the ability to hammer a solid


into a sheet without breaking it, and ductility refers
to whether a solid can be stretched to form a wire.
As you may have guessed, metals tend to be both
malleable and ductile, largely due to the non-
directionality of metallic bonds.
Example of electrical conductivity is wires in your
computer to get electrical power in order to run. In contrast, covalent and ionic bonds, which are
directional and require specific geometries resulting
Heat, or thermal, conductivity is closely related to
in fixed three-dimensional lattice structures, make
electrical conductivity. Just as metals are good
many other types of solids brittle so they break
electrical conductors, you probably know from
under force.
experience that they’re good at conducting heat too.
To understand how this works, consider that
temperature is a measurement of how much
molecules are moving. For a solid to conduct heat,
the movement of one molecule or atom needs to be
easily transferrable to its neighbor.

The non-directional nature of the metallic bond


makes this type of transfer relatively easy, so
metals conduct heat well. In a network solid, on the
other hand, where the bonds are more rigid and the
angles between the atoms are strictly defined, such
transfer is more difficult.
Metallic malleability and ductility are a crucial Example of melting point is when a glass of ice
reason that metals are so useful. Their electrical melts and turns into a glass of water.
conductivity would be much less useful if it weren’t
possible to stretch them into wires that could then
be bent and shaped at room temperature for an
incredible array of applications. SOLUBILITY
They also create some drawbacks though. Metal
jewelry can be crushed and deformed in the bottom
of a purse, or a metal figurine can be dented if it’s
dropped. Manufacturers must consider all the
properties of the materials they plan to work with to
find the best option for each application.

Example of malleability is gold hammered into thin


sheets. While, an example of ductility is copper
drawn into a thin wire.

MELTING POINT

The extent to which a solid dissolves in a particular


solvent is called its solubility. Solids can be
dissolved into a variety of types of solvent.

Dissolving a solid requires breaking different types


of bonds for different types of solids. Dissolving a
metal requires breaking metallic bonds, and
dissolving a network solid requires breaking
Another way to deform a solid is to melt it. A solid’s covalent bonds.
melting point depends on the strength of the
Both of these types of bonds are very strong and
interactions between its components: Stronger
hard to break. Therefore, metals and network solids
interactions mean a higher melting point.
are generally not soluble in water. (Diamond rings
For molecular solids, melting means breaking the probably wouldn’t be as valuable if the band and the
weak intermolecular forces (the forces between stone dissolved in the shower.)
different molecules), not the strong covalent bonds
In contrast, dissolving a molecular solid requires
that hold the individual molecules together, so a
breaking only weak intermolecular forces, not the
compound like sugar can be easily melted on your
covalent bonds that actually hold the individual
stovetop. For network solids (held together by
molecules together. Therefore, molecular solids are
covalent bonds), ionic solids (held together by ionic
relatively soluble, as you might have been able to
bonds), and metallic solids (held together by
guess given how we use sugar in so many drinks.
metallic bonds), though, the melting temperature
depends on the strength of the specific bonds in Finally, to dissolve ionic solids, the ionic bonds
each solid. between the atoms or molecules must be broken,
which water does particularly well. Each atom or
molecule within an ionic solid carries a charge, and
water molecules also carry a charge due to polarity Density, defined as the amount of mass that exists
(see our Water: in a certain volume is another important property
that depends on the solid’s structure an
Properties and Behavior module for more composition. It’s important to note that although we
information). As a result, the negative charges described the different types of crystal solids as
within water are attracted to the positively charged having certain structural characteristics, there is
ions, and the positive charges within water are significant variation within each type as well.
attracted to the negative ions. This allows the water
molecules to dissolve ionic solids by separating the For example, metallic solids do not all share a
parts, essentially trading the favorable ionic similar arrangement of atoms. The atoms and
interaction in the solid crystal with favorable ionic molecules that make up crystals can pack in many
interactions between the individual ions and the different ways, which affects density.
water molecules. Therefore, most salts are relatively
water-soluble.

Both salt and sugar are quite soluble in water, but


because of the differences between ionic solids
(salt) and molecular solids (sugar), salt water
behaves differently than sugar water (remember the
light bulb experiment from the previous section).
When salt dissolves in water, the positively (Na+)
and negatively (Cl-) charged ions that compose the
solid separate, creating a liquid solution of charged
particles.
Example, a jar of neatly ordered marbles, with each
These charged particles can pick up electrons and
transfer them across the solution, effectively dimple between marbles in one row filled with a
marble in the row above. This closely packed
conducting electricity. When salts such as
arrangement leads to a very high density. Gold
ammonium sulfate dissolve, the ionic bonds
between the ions break, but the covalent bonds takes on approximately this type of packing,
resulting in its high density of 19.3 grams per cubic
holding the individual complex ions together remain
centimeter. Now imagine another jar where the
intact. By comparison, when sugar dissolves, each
individual sucrose molecule separates from its marbles are still neatly ordered, but each marble is
neighbors but the sucrose molecules themselves stacked directly on top of another instead of in the
dimple.
remain intact and without charge, so they don’t
conduct electricity. This type of packing leaves a lot more empty space
in the jar because those dimples aren’t filled, so if
Example of solubility is dissolving sugar to water.
the jar is the same size as the first jar, it can’t hold
as many marbles and is less dense. Lithium, which
DENSITY is the least dense metal at 0.534 grams per cubic
centimeter, is an example of this type of packing.

DENSITY is a physical property of matter, as each


element and compound has a unique density
associated with it. Density defined in a qualitative
manner as the measure of the relative "heaviness"
of objects with a constant volume.

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