What is the Kinetic Theory of Matter?

Question

I'm not really sure what this is, can someone help me?

Answer 1

KTM says all matter is made up of molecules and/or atoms, which are in constant motion. The molecules and/or atoms can move in a variety of ways, depending on the state of the matter (solid, liquid, gas, plasma) and the particle kinetic energy, which is often manifest as temperature.

Water molecules, for example, behave differently at different ranges of temperature. As ice, below freezing, the molecules behave like most crystalline solids. That is, they are locked in place, but vibrate around that place. Further, they have structure, a pattern, which is why snowflakes have those beautiful shapes.

Above boiling energy (temperature), the molecules are like a divorced couple...there is no mutual attraction at all. They are free to assume what ever volume and shape their container is. And, as you might expect, with all that extra energy, their kinetic energies are quite high. This is why there is excess energy to tap off of steam...to run steam engines and such.

In between, we have the liquid water. It's molecules have some attraction to each other; so they tend to stay close by to each other. But, like a dating couple, they are free to move about but not entirely away. They assume the shape of their container, but their volume remains fixed.

Note that KTM applies to both molecules and atoms. Liquid crystal atoms, for example, have kinetic energy. At a narrow range of temperature, the LCD in your calculator screen behaves a bit like a solid crystal and a bit like a liquid. Raise the temperature (kinetic energy) and the LCD is more like a liquid and the atoms can slide over each other. Lower the kinetic energy and they are more like a solid, fixed in place.

Answer 2

What is the kinetic theory of matter?
That matter is made up of molecules, and that these molecules are in continual random motion and possessing kinetic energies.
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The three states of matter are : SOLID, LIQUID and GAS.
(Please see the following link for additional scientific facts.)
http://www.chs.edu.sg/~stevensu/Physics/KineticTheory/KineticTheory.htm#phenomena