States of Matter PDF

States of Matter What do ice cream, root beer, and carbon dioxide gas have in common? Not only do these ingredients combine to make a good treat on a hot summer day, but they also are made of matter. Matter can be found in many different shapes, sizes, and forms. For example, the ice cream, the ro...

States of Matter What do ice cream, root beer, and carbon dioxide gas have in common? Not only do these ingredients combine to make a good treat on a hot summer day, but they also are made of matter. Matter can be found in many different shapes, sizes, and forms. For example, the ice cream, the root beer, and the gas that makes the root beer fizz are all types of matter. We cannot see all the particles that make up the root beer float, but we know they are there. Hold your hand over the fizz. What do you feel? We might not be able to see all the gases in a root beer float, but we know they are there, especially when we can feel them. What is matter? Simply put, matter is the stuff that every physical thing is made of. Anything that has mass and takes up space is matter. The particles of matter are too small to see, but they are still there. You would need a microscope to see them! Matter can be described and classified by its properties. A property is a characteristic or feature of a substance or an object. Take a look at the following things. Describe the properties of each. What does it look like? How do you think it would feel in your hands? What other senses can you use to describe them? 1  States of Matter How is matter classified? Physical properties can be observed and measured. Some physical properties of matter—such as size, color, and shape—can be observed by using your senses. Measurements made using science tools can be used to describe other physical properties of matter. Matter can be in one of three states: solid, liquid, or gas. A solid has its own shape and takes up a specific amount of space. A book, a table, and a pencil are all examples of solids. A liquid also takes up a set amount of space, but it does not have its own shape. It will take the shape of whatever container it is in. At room temperature, milk, orange juice, and water are all liquids. A gas has no definite shape. It will fill up any available space. It takes the shape and fills the entire space of whatever container it is in. When you blow up a balloon with air, the shape the balloon takes is due to the air that is in there. The more air, the bigger the balloon. The particles in matter are moving! We know that all matter is made up of tiny particles that we cannot see. Did you know these particles are also moving? Each state of matter has certain characteristics based on how its particles move. Think about an ice cube. Ice cubes are made of water particles. The particles are very close together and are not moving very much. This is why a solid keeps its shape. When the ice melts, it becomes a liquid. The particles in a liquid are still water particles, but they are moving around more than they were before. Once the water becomes a gas (water vapor), it is still made of water particles, but the particles are moving around quickly and filling up whatever space they are in. All states of matter are made up of tiny particles that we cannot see! 2  States of Matter Imagine you have a strip of paper 10 feet long and you cut it in half. Then, you cut one-half of the paper strip in half. You keep cutting each half into halves. Would you ever run out of paper to cut? The answer is no. Your scissors might be too big to keep cutting, but there would always be matter left that you could cut in half. All matter is made of particles that are too small to be seen individually. Even when you have cut the tiniest sliver of paper possible with your scissors, there are paper particles left to be cut in half. We may not be able to see the particles in matter, but we know they are there. Gases in the air are difficult to work with because they are invisible. We can tell there is air in a balloon because we can feel it escape when we open the end. We don’t have to see it to know it is there. If we add air to a basketball or soccer ball, it will expand. This tells us there is air in the ball. We may not be able to see the air, but we can see evidence of it by observing how it affects other objects. Some matter seems to disappear into other matter. Putting sugar or salt in water will cause either of them to dissolve. We know that the sugar or salt is still in the water, even though we can’t see it. The particles are now very small, but we can taste them. If the water were allowed to evaporate, or turn into a gas, the sugar or the salt would be left behind. Look at the sugar being poured into the coffee. How will the coffee taste? dissolve – to spread out evenly in a liquid; to make a solution Choose a small, everyday object and observe it under a microscope. What do you see? Describe your observations below. 3