What is matter?

Chapter 8 Lesson 1

Matter Everywhere

Everything you can see, smell, or touch is matter.

Many things that you cannot see, smell, or touch are matter too.

Air is an example of matter you sometimes cannot see, smell, or touch.

Matter is anything that takes up space and has mass. You can feel the mass of objects as weight when you pick them up.

When you blow up a balloon, you see that even air takes up space.

The hockey puck and volleyball look different, but they are both matter.

Hockey puck volleyball

Properties of Matter

Property is something about matter that you can observe with one or more of your senses.

Some properties of matter are

shape

size

color

texture

hardness

A basketball might be large, round, orange, bumpy, and hard.

Bumpy and smooth describe an object’s texture.Texture is how an object feels to the touch.

Hardness describes how firm an object.

Inflated basketball

The properties of an object depend in part on the materials it is made from.Wood, plastic, rubber, and metals

Tennis ball and a basketball make different sounds when they bounce. This is partly because they are made from different materials with different properties.

Your sense of smell tells you about another property – odor.