what happens to particles when they are heated

When particles are heated, they gain energy, move faster, and usually spread farther apart, which can make substances expand and even change state (solid → liquid → gas).

Particle motion and energy

• Heating increases the kinetic energy of particles, so they move faster whether they are in a solid, liquid, or gas.

• Temperature is essentially a measure of the average kinetic energy of these moving particles, so higher temperature means more energetic motion.

Solids, liquids, and gases

• In solids , particles mainly vibrate about fixed positions; heating makes these vibrations stronger until some particles break free and the solid can melt into a liquid.

• In liquids , particles already move around each other; when heated they move faster and farther apart, which can lead to boiling and becoming a gas.

• In gases , particles are far apart and moving quickly; extra heat makes them move even faster and spread out more, so the gas expands.

Changes you can observe

• As particles speed up and spread out, most substances expand slightly when heated, which is why things like metal rails or thermometers get a bit larger in volume at higher temperatures.

• During melting or boiling, the added heat goes into breaking the attraction between particles rather than raising temperature, so temperature can stay constant while the state changes.

In everyday terms, heating is like “turning up the speed” of invisible particles; the faster they move, the more they push apart, making materials expand or change state.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.