Matter Is Made of Particles

Question 1

Which statement best explains why we cannot see the individual particles that make up a piece of metal?

Accepted Answer

The particles are too small for our eyes to see.

Answer

A magical force hides the particles from view.

Answer

The particles only appear when the metal is heated.

Answer

The particles are far apart, so they cannot be seen together.

Question 2

A block of ice is taken from a freezer and placed on a sunny windowsill. After a while it melts into water, and later the water begins to boil and turns into steam. Which statement correctly uses the particle model to explain both the melting and the boiling?

Accepted Answer

When the ice is warmed, its particles gain kinetic energy and vibrate faster until the forces holding them in a fixed pattern break, allowing them to slide past each other as a liquid; with more heating the particles vibrate even faster, overcome all attractions, and spread far apart, becoming a gas.

Answer

The particles in ice already move quickly; heat only changes their color, and the change from ice to water and then to steam happens because the heat makes the water look like steam.

Answer

Heat turns the particles into invisible energy, so the solid disappears directly into steam without passing through a liquid stage.

Answer

Heating makes each particle grow larger, so the tight ice particles expand, melt, and then become so big that they turn into steam.

Question 3

Which model best illustrates the idea that matter is made of particles that are too small to be seen with the naked eye?

Accepted Answer

A model that shows a piece of metal as a collection of many tiny circles clustered together, indicating the particles are too small to see.

Answer

A model that shows a piece of metal as a few large balls that can be easily counted, implying the particles are visible.

Answer

A model that shows a piece of metal as a swirl of light, indicating matter is made of energy rather than particles.

Answer

A model that shows a piece of metal as one solid block with no internal parts, suggesting matter is continuous.

Try three questions

Which statement best explains why we cannot see the individual particles that make up a piece of metal?

A block of ice is taken from a freezer and placed on a sunny windowsill. After a while it melts into water, and later the water begins to boil and turns into steam. Which statement correctly uses the particle model to explain both the melting and the boiling?

Which model best illustrates the idea that matter is made of particles that are too small to be seen with the naked eye?

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