Weird Science: Watch Substance Coexist as Gas, Liquid and Solid
It’s a gas! It’s a liquid! It’s a solid? When a substance reaches its triple point, like the unknown material in this video, it can undergo an identity crisis. In this state of confusion, it coexists as a gas, liquid, and solid at the same time. In order for this scientific phenomena to happen, a low temperature and pressure must be just right. Image: Triple Point Wikipedia Commons The phase diagram above shows the circumstances needed for these states to exist. The solid green line applies to most substances, and the dotted green line represents what is usually expected from water. BONUS: 10 ‘Cosmos’ Facts That Are Out of This World Mindblowing Cosmos Facts 1. We are made of stars. “They get so hot that the nuclei of the atoms fuse together deep within them to make the oxygen we breathe, the carbon in our muscles, the calcium in our bones, the iron in our blood. You, me, everyone: We are made of star stuff.” Image: Tumblr alwaysmoneyinthebnanastand 2. Our universe may be part of a larger multiverse. “Many of us suspect that all of this — all the worlds, stars, galaxies and clusters in our observable universe — is but one tiny bubble in an infinite ocean of other universes.” Image: Tumblr likeaphysicist 3. If we scaled the entire timeline of the cosmos to a calendar year, the entire recorded history of human life to present day would be 14 seconds. “Every person you’ve ever heard of lies right in there. All those kings and battles, migrations and inventions, wars and loves, every thing in the history books happened here in the last 14 seconds of the cosmic calendar.” Image: Tumblr ofalltime 4. Giordano Bruno had no scientific evidence to support his beliefs about the cosmos, but he was surprisingly accurate nonetheless. “Bruno was no scientist. His vision of the cosmos was a lucky guess because he had no evidence to support it. Like most guesses, it could well have turned out wrong. But once the idea was in the air, it gave others a target to aim at — if only to disprove it.” Image: No Homers Club pcarrion 5. Our solar system is surrounded by an icy shell of comets that’s imperceptible to us on Earth. “Each one of these little worlds is as far from its nearest neighbor as Earth is from Saturn” Image: Tumblr the-universe-unknown 6. Comets come from an Oort cloud, which is a mass of icy bodies on the outskirts of the solar system, and circle around the sun. “These are the snows of yesteryear. Drifting mountains of ice and rock, the preserved remnants of the birth of the solar system.” Image: Tumblr yesknopemaybe 7. Our eyes originally evolved to see in water, so we don’t see as well as we should. “When our amphibious ancestors left the water for the land their eyes, exquisitely evolved to see in water, were lousy for seeing in the air. Our vision has never been as […]