![]() ![]() The computer models confirmed that between about 20,000 and 40,000 times atmospheric pressure and 400 to 800 Kelvin (260 to 980 degrees Fahrenheit), the potassium entered what’s called a chain-melted state, in which the chains dissolved into liquid while the remaining potassium crystals stayed solid. After being trained on small groups of potassium atoms, the neural network learned quantum mechanics well enough to simulate collections containing tens of thousands of atoms. Hermann and his colleagues turned to simulations to find out, using what’s known as a neural network-an artificial intelligence machine that learns how to predict behavior based on prior examples. ![]() But as scientists turned up the heat, x-ray images showed the four chains disappearing, and researchers argued about what exactly was happening. “Somehow, these potassium atoms decide to divide up into two loosely linked sub-lattices,” Hermann says. When compressed to similar extremes, its atoms arrange themselves into an elaborate formation-five cylindrical tubes organized into an X shape, with four long chains sitting in the crooks of this assembly, almost like two separate and non-intertwining materials. Potassium, too, has been subjected to much experimental scrutiny. By probing the sodium with x-rays, scientists could see that its atoms had adopted a complex crystal formation instead of a simple one. At 20,000 times the pressure present at the Earth’s surface, sodium transformed from a silvery block into a transparent material, one that did not conduct electricity but rather prevented its flow. For a long time, researchers believed that they could easily predict what might occur to such crystalline structures under pressure.īut around 15 years ago, scientists discovered that sodium-a metal with similar properties to potassium-did something strange when compressed. ![]() When shaped into a solid bar, the element’s atoms link up into orderly rows that conduct heat and electricity well. Metals like potassium are fairly straightforward on a microscopic level. Find out the origins of our home planet and some of the key ingredients that help make this blue speck in space a unique global ecosystem. Similar simulations could help study the behaviors of other minerals in such extreme environments.Įarth is the only planet known to maintain life. The unusual state of potassium could exist under conditions found in Earth’s mantle, but the element is generally not found in a pure form and is usually bound up with other material. “It would be like holding a sponge filled with water that starts dripping out, except the sponge is also made of water,” says study coauthor Andreas Hermann, a condensed matter physicist at the University of Edinburgh whose team describes the work this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science. If you were somehow able to pull out a chunk of such material, it would probably look like a solid block leaking molten potassium that eventually all dissolved away. Now, a team has used a type of artificial intelligence to confirm the existence of a bizarre new state of matter, one in which potassium atoms exhibit properties of both a solid and a liquid at the same time. Some types of uncooked custard act like solids if you hit them, and the more force you apply, the harder the custard becomes.Solid, liquid, gas … and something else? While most of us learn about just three states of matter in elementary school, physicists have discovered several exotic varieties that can exist under extreme temperature and pressure conditions. If you turn your tomato sauce bottle upside down and nothing comes out, it behaves like a solid, but if you shake it, the act of applying force or stress to the tomato sauce makes the sauce flow more freely (reduces its viscosity). They behave like liquids and, under certain circumstances, like solids. Tomato sauce, honey and custard are all special liquids called non-Newtonian fluids.Oil is also a liquid, but is usually much thicker than water – it has a greater viscosity.You regularly pour juice and milk into glasses or bowls – you see them conform to the shape of the container, so you can safely say they are liquids.Keeping this property of a liquid in mind, think about the following list of things and decide if they are liquids – juice, milk, oil, tomato sauce, honey and custard. Because it isn’t in a container, it is conforming to the shape of the floor, making a big puddle! ![]() If you spill the water, it will go everywhere. If you have a glass of water and pour it into another glass, it clearly conforms – it takes on the shape of the glass. ![]()
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