Classification of Matter

What is Matter?

Here's a riddle for you to ponder: What do you and a tiny speck of dust in outer space have in common? Think you know the answer? Read on to find out.

Both you and the speck of dust consist of atoms of matter. So does the ground beneath your feet. In fact, everything you can see and touch is made of matter. The only things that aren't matter are forms of energy, such as light and sound. Although forms of energy are not matter, the air and other substances they travel through are. So what is matter? Matter is defined as anything that has mass and volume.

All the objects that we see in the world around us are made of matter. Matter makes up the air we breathe, the ground we walk on, the food we eat, and the animals and plants that live around us. Even our own human bodies are made of matter!

Mass is the amount of matter in a substance or object. Mass is commonly measured with a balance. It allows an object to be matched with other objects of known mass. In chemistry, the SI unit for mass is the gram.

The amount of space matter takes up is its volume. How the volume of matter is measured depends on its state.

The volume of liquids is measured with measuring containers. In the kitchen, liquid volume is usually measured with measuring cups or spoons. In the lab, liquid volume is measured with containers such as graduated cylinders. Units in the metric system for liquid volume include liters (L) and milliliters (mL).
The volume of gases depends on the volume of their container. That's because gases expand to fill whatever space is available to them. For example, as you drink water from a bottle, air rushes in to take the place of the water. An "empty" liter bottle actually holds a liter of air. How could you find the volume of air in an "empty" room?
The volume of regularly shaped solids can be calculated from their dimensions. For example, the volume of a rectangular solid is the product of its length, width, and height (l × w × h). For solids that have irregular shapes, the displacement method is used to measure volume. You can see how it works in the picture below. The SI unit for solid volumes is cubic meters (m³). However, cubic centimeters (cm³) are often used for smaller volume measurements.

Displacement Method For Finding Volume

Displacement Method For Finding Volume

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