But temperature is also an indication of things impossible to see with your eyes or to feel with your hands. To a chemist temperature is a measurement of the average speed of the atoms or molecules in an object.
This lesson is not complete. And will not be completed soon: it does not lend itself to higher-level thinking skills as I have currently considered it. See below for the topics I intended to cover. Originally this was conceived as a lead-in to coverage of pressure concepts and the ideal gas laws.
absolute zero (fit this in somewhere?)
solids, liquids, gases: differences are the strength of the forces holding them together
solids: hold their shape, maintain their volume, do not flow, strong forces hold particles together, particles are as close together as they can get (assuming there are no gaps), particles jiggle in place
liquids: take on the shape of their container, maintain their volume, flow more or less easily, forces holding particles together are weaker than in a solid, distance btw. particles is about the same as the size of the particle, particles can move freely but do so at relatively low speeds
gases: take on the shape of their container, take on the volume of their container, almost no forces holding particles together, distance btw. particles is 10x greater than the size of the particles, particles are able to move freely at high speeds in any direction
expansion/contraction upon heating/cooling
boiling point: process of boiling
melting point/freezing point: process of melting/freezing
Types of questions:
factual recall