Matter Is The Stuff Around You
What is Matter?
Matter is everything around you. Matter is everything made of atoms and molecules. Matter is anything that has a mass and occupies space, which means it can be weighed. However, some things that are matter can’t be scooped up and weighed. For instance, matter is also related to light.
Even though matter can be found all over the universe, you usually find it in just a few forms. As of 1995, scientists have identified five states of matter. They may discover one more by the time you get old.
You should know about solids, liquids, and gases, because they are the states of matter you deal with every day. Ionized gases, or plasmas, are also a state of matter. In 1995 scientists first created a new state of matter called a Bose-Einstein condensate. The scientists who first made Bose-Einstein condensates received a Nobel Prize for their work in 2001.
But what makes a state of matter? It’s all about what the smallest parts of matter, called molecules and atoms, are doing. They might be flying around really fast, like in a gas. Or they might be stuck together in a rigid form to make a solid. These are very different ways for molecules to behave, and they lead to very different properties, as we shall see later.
Elements and compounds can move from one state to another and not change. Nitrogen as a gas still has the same properties as liquid nitrogen. The liquid state is denser but the molecules are still the same. Water is another example. The compound water is made up of two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom. It has the same molecular structure whether it is a gas, liquid, or solid. Although its physical state may change, its chemical state remains the same.
So, you ask “What is a chemical state?” If the formula of water were to change, that would be a chemical change. If you added another oxygen atom, you would make hydrogen peroxide, a different molecule. Changing states of matter is about changing densities, pressures, and temperatures. If the basic chemical structure changes, that is a chemical change.
Written for younger readers
Matter Is The Stuff Around You, in simpler words
This version comes from Wikijunior, a set of books written for children aged 8 to 11. It is shorter and uses plainer language than the article above.
From Wikijunior: The Elements
What is Matter?
Matter is everything around you. Matter is everything made of atoms and molecules. Matter is anything that has a mass and occupies space, which means it can be weighed. However, some things that are matter can’t be scooped up and weighed. For instance, matter is also related to light.
Even though matter can be found all over the universe, you usually find it in just a few forms. As of 1995, scientists have identified five states of matter. They may discover one more by the time you get old.
You should know about solids, liquids, and gases, because they are the states of matter you deal with every day. Ionized gases, or plasmas, are also a state of matter. In 1995 scientists first created a new state of matter called a Bose-Einstein condensate. The scientists who first made Bose-Einstein condensates received a Nobel Prize for their work in 2001.
But what makes a state of matter? It’s all about what the smallest parts of matter, called molecules and atoms, are doing. They might be flying around really fast, like in a gas. Or they might be stuck together in a rigid form to make a solid. These are very different ways for molecules to behave, and they lead to very different properties, as we shall see later.
Elements and compounds can move from one state to another and not change. Nitrogen as a gas still has the same properties as liquid nitrogen. The liquid state is denser but the molecules are still the same. Water is another example. The compound water is made up of two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom. It has the same molecular structure whether it is a gas, liquid, or solid. Although its physical state may change, its chemical state remains the same.
So, you ask “What is a chemical state?” If the formula of water were to change, that would be a chemical change. If you added another oxygen atom, you would make hydrogen peroxide, a different molecule. Changing states of matter is about changing densities, pressures, and temperatures. If the basic chemical structure changes, that is a chemical change.
Where this page comes from
The article above is adapted from “Matter Is The Stuff Around You” on Simple English Wikipedia, by its contributors. We removed reference markers, navigation boxes and tables, expanded measurement templates into readable numbers, and kept the prose otherwise intact. The simpler version is adapted from Wikijunior on Wikibooks.
Both sources are published under CC BY-SA 4.0, so this page is published under the same licence. You may share and adapt it, including commercially, as long as you credit the original and keep the same licence.
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