What is Matter

What is matter? Matter is everything around you. Atoms and compounds are all made of very small parts of matter. Those atoms go on to build the things you see and touch every day. Matter is defined as anything that has mass and takes up space (it has volume).

What is mass? Mass is the amount of matter in an object. You might have a small object with a lot of mass such as a statue made of lead (Pb). You might have a large object with very little mass such as a balloon filled with helium (He). You should also know there is a difference between mass and weight. Mass is a measure of the matter in an object while weight is a measure of gravity’s pull on an object.

What is volume? Volume is the amount of space something occupies. Words such as big, little, long, or short are used to describe volumes. A marble takes up a small volume while a star occupies a large volume. Different states of matter will fill volumes in different ways.

Even though matter can be found all over the Universe, you will only find it in a few forms (states) on Earth. We cover three states of matter on the site. Each of those states is sometimes called a phase. There are many other states of matter that exist in extreme environments. Scientists will probably discover more states of matter as we continue to explore the Universe.

What are physical properties of matter?

Physical properties are those things that one can observe or measure. This is done without changing the composition of matter.

We use physical properties to describe the things we observe, smell or even taste. Example the colour of a person’s hair is something we see and use to describe a person, even the colour of the skin, their build… all the external aspects.

Physical properties include: appearance, texture, colour, odour, melting point, boiling point, density, solubility, density, conductivity and many others. The melting point and boiling point are related to changes of the state of matter. All matter may exist in any of three physical states of matter.

What is volume?

Volume is the amount of space occupied by a shape or object. It is 3-dimensional space; length, width and height). There are 2 ways of determining volume;

a) We can calculate the volume of a regular shape by measuring the length, width/breadth and height and multiplying the 3 measurements together. The answer is in cubic units.

V = l x b x h (cm³, mm ³)

b) Using Archimedes’ principle.

This principle states:

When an object is totally or partially submersed in a ‘fluid’ (liquid or gas) it will displace its own volume in that fluid.