Physical state

The term “state” has many different meanings in chemistry, and it is important to keep them all in mind. We have already met one meaning in the expression “the states of matter” and specifically “the gaseous state.” Now we meet a second: by physical state (or just “state”) we shall mean a specific condition of a sample of matter that is described in terms of its physical form (gas, liquid, or solid) and the volume, pressure, temperature, and amount of substance present. (The precise meanings of these terms are described below.) So, 1 kg of hydrogen gas in a container of volume 10 L (where 1 L = 1 dm³) at a specified pressure and temperature is in a particular state. The same mass of gas in a container of volume 5 L is in a different state. Two samples of a given substance are in the same state if they are the same state of matter (that is, are both present as gas, liquid, or solid) and if they have the same mass, volume, pressure, and temperature.

  To see more precisely what is involved in specifying the state of a substance, we need to define the terms we have used. The mass, m, of a sample is a measure of the quantity of matter it contains. Thus, 2 kg of lead contains twice as much matter as 1 kg of lead and indeed twice as much matter as 1 kg of anything. The Système International (SI) unit of mass is the kilogram (kg), with 1 kg currently defined as the mass of a certain block of platinum-iridium alloy preserved at Sèvres, outside Paris. For typical laboratory-sized samples it is usually more convenient to use a smaller unit and to express mass in grams (g), where 1 kg =10³ g.

  The volume, V, of a sample is the amount of space it occupies. Thus, we write V = 100 cm³ if the sample occupies 100 cm³ of space. The units used to express volume (which include cubic meters, m³; cubic decimeters, dm3, or liters, L; milliliters, mL).

  Pressure and temperature need more introduction, for even though they may be familiar from everyday life, they need to be defined carefully for use in science.