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Everything around you is made up of matter. Chocolate cake is made up of matter. You are made of matter. The air is made of matter. * Matter takes up space. All matter takes up space. Your computer is taking up space on the desk. You are taking up space on the chair. * All matter has mass. Mass is how much there is of an object. The unit for mass is a gram. A coin has the mass of about one gram. You can see some matter (like a lemon) but some matter is invisible (like air). You can hold some matter in your hands (like a spoon), but you can't hold a cloud! |
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If you are having trouble understanding matter, look all around you. You can see matter makes up the walls of your house and your classroom. Matter is large and matter is small. Matter is what makes up a carrot and a knife and a finger and the air you breathe. You can't see the air, but if it wasn't there, you wouldn't survive, would you? Do you get it yet? Scientists believe that all matter is made of very small particles called atoms. Let's take this carrot and a knife: |
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Let's get closer and closer to the smaller parts of the carrot - particles of carrot! Chop up the carrot as small as you can chop, and you still won't be able to make it small enough to get down to single particles or atoms. The very smallest parts of the carrot are called atoms. But you can't see them with your eyes! Anything you see and can feel is made of atoms. All atoms are too small to be seen with the naked eye or even a microscope, although there are some new types of microscopes that are now able to see larger atoms such as gold. |
