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💧 How Materials Change State

Ice to water to steam and back again — explore melting, boiling, and condensing, and how heat gives particles the energy to change state.

lessons

~15 min

to learn

🔬 Science

subject

Teens

level

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What you’ll learn

The Three StatesRecognise the three states of matter and name the changes between them.Water can be a solid (ice), a liquid, or a gas (steam), and adding or removing heat moves it between them. Melting and freezing swap solid and liquid, while evaporating and condensing swap liquid and gas — a loop you can travel both ways.
Changing StateDescribe boiling and condensing and the temperatures at which water changes state.Heating climbs the ladder from solid to liquid to gas: ice melts at 0°C and water boils to steam at 100°C. Cooling comes back down, as gases condense into liquids on cold surfaces. Particles gain or lose energy at each stage.
Energy and TemperatureExplain how adding or removing heat energy causes changes of state.Heat is energy. Adding heat makes particles move faster and spread apart, so materials melt and then boil; removing heat slows and packs them, so materials condense and freeze. Throughout, the substance stays the same — only its state changes.

Questions this course answers

When a solid changes into a liquid, the change is called...

Melting is the change from solid to liquid, such as ice melting into water when heated.

At what temperature does water boil and turn into steam?

Water boils at 100°C, when its particles gain enough energy to escape into the air as a gas.

Warm, damp air meets a cold window and droplets form. This change is called...

Condensing is gas turning back to liquid. The water vapour cools on the cold glass and clumps into tiny droplets.

What does adding heat do to the particles in a material?

Heat is energy. Adding it makes particles move faster and spread apart, which lets a material change state.

Which change of state means liquid turning into a gas?

Evaporating (or boiling) is the change from liquid to gas, as particles gain energy and escape into the air.

When water changes state, the water itself...

Changing state does not make a new substance. Ice, water, and steam are all still water — only the state has changed.

Grounded in trusted sources

Royal Society of Chemistry
BBC Bitesize
Britannica
American Chemical Society

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