The water in the photo flows over the top of the boundary of the pool, thus indicating that water takes up space.
What is Matter?
Matter is anything that has mass and takes up space, such as water. The photo shows water first falling and filling and collecting at the bottom of the waterfall. When the collected water increases in volume, the water spills over a rock boundary.
Water takes up space. Volume is the amount of space that matter occupies.
Metric volume measurements include:
liter and milliliter as well as cubic centimeters or cubic meters.
English volume measurements include:
gallon, quart, pint, and cup as well as cubic inches, cubic feet, or cubic miles.
Water also has mass, which means it is made up of physical particles. Don’t confuse mass with weight. While they are related, they are not exactly the same.
Weight measures the amount of gravitational force pulling on an object.
Mass measure how difficult it is to start or stop the motion of an object. In other words, mass measures the inertia of matter.
Note: It would be correct to say that matter has both volume and inertia.
The giant, massive ocean wave shown is called a tsuanami.
The artist’s rendition of a tsunami striking a small village is a visual representation of a large amount of water with a great amount of inertia.
There is no stopping a tsunami.
Another Definition of Matter
Matter, based upon its physical and chemical structure, can be defined as any substance made up of elements and/or compounds
A substance is matter of one chemical composition, an element or a compound.
An element is made of one kind of atom, which is the smallest particle of an element that retains the properties of the element. Examples of elements are gold, sulfur, oxygen, helium, and calcium.
Compounds are made up of two or more atoms.
Some compounds, such as water, is made up of molecules, which acts as a single substance. These are called covalent compounds because the atoms forming the molecules are held together by covalent bonds (share electrons).
Another type of compound, such as table salt, is made up of ions, charged particles. These compounds are called ionic compounds because ionic bonds hold the particles together.
I like this definition of matter. Now mass can be defined as the amount of matter in a substance.
Note: At a more microscopic level, one could say that matter is made up of what atoms, ions, and molecules are made of.
What are the States of Matter?
The three states of matter generally identified are: solid, liquid and gas. A fourth state of matter that is less commonly discussed is plasma. Plasma forms when a gas is heat, such as on the Sun. For this article, only the three more familiar states of matter will be discussed–solid, liquid and gas.
States of matter defines the physical characteristics as well as the thermal energy of a substance. Water, which is made up of molecules, is an example of matter and thus exists in all three states of matter. When solid, water is called ice. Liquid water–well just water or to be specific, you could say liquid water. Now about water as a gas, water vapor (gas) is a good name.
By using water as an example, it will be easy for you to identify which of the three states of matter has more energy. You put ice in water to make it colder. It is important to know that something gets colder because it loses heat. Heat is the transfer of energy from something that is hot to something that is cold. In other words, ice in a glass of water is not adding “cool” to the water. Instead, the water is transferring heat to the ice.
Why Matter Changes State
The state of matter depend on the energy of the particles that the matter is made of. The particles of water are called molecules. Heat is a form of energy. As a molecules energy increases the faster the molecule moves and the farther apart are the molecules. Gases have the most energy and single gas particles move in a straight line until they hit some boundary and bounce back in another direction.
There is a force of attraction between like molecules. This force is called cohesion. If the molecules of a substance move slow enough, their force of attraction pull the molecules close enough to form bond. For example, when water molecules are cold enough to form ice, the water molecules form a six-sided ring. This is why snowflakes have six sides. As the ice molecules heat up they start moving and with enough energy can break away from the ring to form liquid water, groups of water molecules linked together. When individual water molecules break away from liquid groups and escape into the air around the liquid water, the single molecule is a molecule of water vapor.
Activity: Students Model Hexagonal Ice Crystal Units.
Students with hand to shoulder positioning form hexagonal ice crystal units.
Kids can model hexagonal ice crystal units. The diagram is an overhead view showing the head, arms and hands of students. Each color represents a single water molecule with the circle (student head) being oxygen, the colored lines (student arms) represent bonds and the white circles (student hands) are hydrogen atoms.
The completed hexagon is made of six different students. Note that each kid only connects to one other kid in the hexagon. This connection is made by placing a hand on the shoulder of the kid next to them. Their second hand connects to a kid that will form a joining hexagon.
The ice crystal units made of water molecules are many layers deep and spread out in all directions. This student model will be on one plane and can stretch out as far as there are kids to connect to.
The Following Terms Describing Opposite Changes of Matter Processes Are Described In This Article, How Energy Affect States of Matter
melting —->freezing; evaporation —->condensation; vaporization—>condensation;
boiling—>condensation; sublimation—>deposition
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