ABSTRACT
IN looking round with inquisitive eyes we are bound to ask : What is this light that our eyes enjoy? What is this warmth that fills us with comfort? This leads to the study of the science of Physics; and when we push our questions into ourselves and ask what seeing means and how the body comes to be warm, we are led to the science of Physiology. Or we may concern ourselves more with matter than with energy, and ask what is the solid earth on which we tread, and what the air we breathe, and what is the nature of the great sea? This kind of question leads us to the science of Chemistry, which is chiefly concerned with the different kinds of matter and with the interactions that often occur between different kinds. One of 44the first of these questions has to do with the different states of matter—solid, liquid, and gaseous. Everyone knows that dampness in the air means the presence of much water in the form of vapour. It has been drawn up (evaporated) from the surface of the sea or some other body of water. When this water vapour is blown against the cold rocks on the mountain side, it “condenses.” That is to say it passes from the vaporous into the liquid state; it trickles down the rocks to form one of the innumerable runlets that feed the springs or the streams. But if great cold should set in, the liquid water becomes a solid icicle. Thus we are all very familiar with water as vapour, as liquid, and as solid. The steam that escapes from an engine or from our nostrils on a frosty morning consists of molecules of water in a gaseous state, for the distinction between vapour and gas is quite unimportant. A vapour is the gaseous state of a substance that is in ordinary conditions a liquid or a solid. The first point in our present study is simply that what is familiarly true of water is true of many other substances, that they occur in three states—gaseous, liquid, and solid. Even the air may be made into a liquid, and carbonic acid gas can be forced into a solid like snow. What we must try to picture is the differences between these three great states—gas, liquid, and solid. T<sc>he</sc> W<sc>orld of</sc> S<sc>cience</sc>. https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9780203705568/ddd3fccb-b02e-4ec3-bb55-b316faa49ca8/content/fig_4.tif"/>
I and II. Influences from inanimate Nature (cosmosphere) may affect animate Nature (biosphere) and human interests (sociosphere).
I and III. Influences from animate Nature may affect inanimate Nature and human interests.
2 and 3. Influences from man’s kingdom may affect inanimate and animate Nature.
