Matter: An introduction

What is matter?

Anything that has volume and mass is called matter. Substance either as light as a feather or as hard as a brick all are matter. Anything which can flow as water or smoke all are matter.

Oxygen and hydrogen are gases, they have volume and mass which is negligible. Water, milk or juice have mass and they occupy space. Sand or brick they have mass as well as they occupy space.

All these are matter.

When we look around us everything that we see is matter. In the morning from using toothbrush till the night while we go in our beds all are matter.

                                                            

On the basis of physical properties matter is classified in three forms: Solid, liquid and gas

Solids are those substance which have fixed shape and volume.

Liquid are those substance which have fixed volume but no fixed shape.

gases are those substance which have no fixed shape and volume.

On the basis of chemical properties matter is classified in three forms: elements, compound and mixtures

Elements : these are the substance in simplest naturally occurring form. These substance cannot be further split in more simpler form using any chemical method.

Elements can be further divided as metal, non-metal and metalloid.

Metal are the strong elements(have high tensile strength) that are good conductor of electricity. They are malleable, ductile and lustrous. They have high density and sonorous.

Non-metal are low tensile strength element that do not conduct electricity. They are brittle and have low melting and boiling point.

Metalloids are the elements that show some properties of metal and some properties of non-metal.

Compounds are substance made up of two or more elements chemically combined in a fixed ratio.

Mixture is a substance that is made up of two or more elements physically combined. mixtures are of two types: homogenous mixture and heterogenous mixtue

Homogenous mixture: this type of mixture have their components uniformly mixed with each other. The components cannot be distinguished.

Heterogeneous mixture: those mixture in which one substance remain separate and can be distinguished from the rest of components are heterogenous mixture.