When we talk about science, we sometimes refer to matter. Matter is the word scientists use to refer to anything that takes up space and has mass. This activity will help you understand what matter is, what matter is made of, and the physical states of matter.

Matter is what makes up the world around us, not to mention the universe and beyond! Anything that we can see, touch, taste, or smell is matter. Matter is never created or destroyed — it only changes form.

All matter has mass. Mass is a similar concept to weight. In other words, the size of something with mass can be measured. However, some of the matter that makes up the world around us is incredibly small.

Air is an example of matter. Although we cannot see air, we know it takes up space. The same is true for other gases that you will learn about below.

For thousands of years, people wondered what the world was made up of. Democritus, a Greek philosopher who lived over 2,000 years ago, was one of the first people to develop an idea about the universe being made up of tiny particles. These particles are what we now refer to as atoms.

Over time, scientists worked with the idea that matter is made up of tiny particles, or atoms. They developed ideas and theories about what atoms are like and how they act. As technology develops more powerful microscopes, scientists are able to see atoms more closely and learn more about them.

CC0.  model of an atom.  Courtesy of Wikimedia

 

What does a tiny atom look like when studied through these powerful microscopes? An atom has two parts: the tiny nucleus and the electrons that surround it. The nucleus (centre) of the atom contains both neutrons and protons. Neutrons are neutral, which mean they are neither positively nor negatively charged. Protons are positively charged. This gives an atom a positively charged nucleus. The other part of an atom is the negatively charged electrons that bounce all over the place like ping pong balls as they dart around the nucleus.

What Forms Can Matter Take?

As you know, matter and the atoms that it is made of are all around us. However, matter takes only one of five forms — at least until scientists make new discoveries about matter! The most common physical states of matter that we might recognize are solid, liquid, gas, and plasma.

(Images courtesy of Wikipedia)

Four States of Matter 

You are probably already familiar with solids, liquids, and gases. Plasma is similar to matter in a gaseous state except that it has an electric charge, so its shape and volume may change. Plasma is the most common state of matter in the universe — it is what makes up the sun and stars.

Another form matter may take is something called Bose-Einstein condensate. A Bose-Einstein condensate is a state of matter in which extremely cold atoms clump together and act as if they are a single atom. Bose-Einstein condensates are the newest form of matter scientists have discovered. We have very little experience with these in our everyday lives. This phase of matter is created when a gas is cooled to an extremely low temperature, close to «math xmlns=¨http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML¨ class=¨wrs_chemistry¨»«mn»0«/mn»«mo»§#176;«/mo»«mo»§#160;«/mo»«mi mathvariant=¨normal¨»K«/mi»«mo»§#160;«/mo»«mi»or«/mi»«mo»§#160;«/mo»«mi»absolute«/mi»«mo»§#160;«/mo»«mi»zero«/mi»«mo»,«/mo»«mo»§#160;«/mo»«/math» and condenses so that separate atoms join together.

Bose-Einstein condensates are not common to our daily experience, and scientists are just beginning to understand them.