Question

What are rubber, plastic, and asphalt examples of?

Answer 1

They all have non-crystalline structures and the molecules in them are not arranged in a specific pattern or lattice. These are amorphous solids that tend to soften slowly over a wide temperature range due to a lack of regular structure.

Complete answer:
A solid is one of four states of matter. The other three states are liquid, gas, and plasma. Compared with other states of matter, atoms in solids are much more tightly packed together so they can’t slip past one another or move apart. This gives solids a fixed shape and a fixed volume.
There exist two types of solids: Crystalline and amorphous solid.
Particles of crystalline solids are arranged in a regular repeating pattern forming a geometric shape called a crystal. On the other hand, amorphous means “shapeless” and unlike crystalline solids, amorphous solids lack a regular shape. The properties of amorphous solids are just opposite and different from crystalline solids that are listed below:
-The intermolecular force forces in amorphous solids are weaker than those in crystalline solids.
-Amorphous solids do not have a regular three-dimensional structure.
-They possess a short-range order of arrangement of their constituent particles.
-They do not have sharp melting points and melt over a range of temperatures.
-They are isotropic in nature. It means that they exhibit uniform properties in all directions.
Some examples of amorphous solids include rubber, plastic, asphalts, and gels. Glass is a very important amorphous solid that is made by cooling a mixture in such a way that it does not crystallize. Plastics are used for many purposes as they are inexpensive to produce and do not shatter like glass.
Hence, rubber, plastic, and asphalt are examples of amorphous solids.

Note:
The irregular structure of amorphous solids allows the molecules to move to a small extent as they are not so close-packed as in a crystalline solid. That is why they exhibit a little fluid-like tendency and are known as pseudo-solid or supercooled liquid.