What is Matter?

Matter is…Everything we see around us:

Glass Metal

Plastic

Bones Breath

Matter can be sorted into three groups:

Solid - Like a brick

Liquid - Like water

gas- Like air

A solid doesn’t take the shape of a flask

So when you put a ball into a flask it doesn’t fill it up or take the shape of the flask - it just stays as a ball in the flask

However a liquid does take the shape of

a flask but doesn’t fill it up

So if we put the same liquid into different containers the liquid changes to be the same shape as the inside of the container but it doesn’t fill it right up

A gas takes the shape of a flask and fills it up completely

The same is true for air in a room – air will expand to completely fill a room, so we can breath everywhere. If it didn’t we would only be able to breath in certain places in the room where there was air, and we would have to hold our breath in other parts where there wasn’t any air.

If we heat most solids we can turn them into liquids

For example if we heat a beaker of ice (solid) it turns into a beaker of water (liquid)

If we heat most liquids we can turn them into gasses

For example boiling Water turns into Steam

Also, if we cool most liquids they become solids

For example if it’s cold enough rain will turn into snow

And if we cool most gasses they become liquids

Power stations release hot steam which is cooled by cooling towers and forms rain clouds which return the water back to earth when it rains

Gasses are very compressible but liquids

and solids are not:

For example you can squash a balloon full of gas with your fingers and change it’s shape easily, but you cannot squash a solid ball easily.

Some solids are very elastic and extendable (stretchy)

For example we can stretch (and bend) a piece of rubber a lot and it comes back to it’s original shape

But some solids are not elastic and break easily or stay bent

For example if we bend a twig too much it breaks, or if we bend a wire too much it stays bent - which is why we can make wire shapes like stars

Some solids conduct heat very well

Metal conducts heat very well but cork doesn’t - which is why the wax melts off of the end where it’s attached to the wire, but not off the end where it’s attached to the cork

Some Solids Conduct Heat Poorly

Which is why we put hot drinks into polystyrene cups rather than glass beakers - to keep them warm and stop us burning our hands!

Some materials are also good electrical conductors

Which is why we make electrical circuits out of metal wire and not strips of wood or rubber bands!

But some materials are not good electrical conductors

So if we put cork in the circuit the bulb doesn’t light up. Another bad conductor is plastic which is why we coat electrical wires with plastic - to make them safe to handle!

Some materials are harder than others

For example chalk and steel can’t cut glass, but diamond can!

Summary

We may not be able to see some types of matter but we can easily see their effects, for example we see a balloon change shape when we fill it with gas, and press on it.

We have seen that solids, liquids and gasses can change into each other if we heat them up or cool them down

We have seen that some materials can conduct heat and electricity better than others

And finally we have seen that some materials are harder than others, and a harder material can be used to scratch, cut or shape a softer one.