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How has the Earth's atmosphere changed over time, and why?Change of state

The Earth, its oceans and atmosphere are made of elements and compounds in different states. The particle model may be used to explain the different properties of the solid, liquid and gas states.

Part of Combined ScienceAir and water

Change of state

The diagram summarises the common changes of .

Image showing the molecular changes from a solid, to  liquid, to gas.

Some substances can change directly from solid to gas without becoming a liquid in between. This is called . Solid carbon dioxide ('dry ice') and iodine can .

Physical and chemical change

Changes of state are physical changes. The substance remains the same.

It is only during a chemical change that a new substance is formed.

Limitations of the particle model - Higher

The represents as inelastic spheres.

It makes a number of simplifications:

  • it assumes that particles are spheres
  • it represents spheres as the same size
  • the gap between in a gas are small enough to make a diagram fit on the page, they should be much larger
  • differences in the forces of attraction between particles are not fully explained

This means that there is a limit to what the particle model can explain. For example, it cannot explain why substances have different and boiling points.