all about properties of matter

I'm on a mission. In search of something I heard about in science class. It's called matter. And I'm hoping to find some in The Rock walls of this dark, mysterious cave. Aha, could this be it? Is this matter? Well, the answer is yes. This rock is matter. But guess what? I really didn't have to go searching in a cave to find it. That's because all things are matter. That's right. Pretty much everything you can think of is made of matter. But if that rock and say this hamburger are both made of matter, then why are they so different? The Rock is hard and rough and dark. The burger on the other hand is soft and juicy and has a lot of colors. That's how we can tell things apart by their shape, color, smell, and so on. These are all called properties. And that's what we're going to talk about today. The properties of matter. So let's go. So everything is made of matter. Go ahead, try to think of something that is not made of matter. An airplane matter. A baseball matter. A really bizarre looking lizard. Yep, still matter. The truth is that it doesn't matter what size or shape something is. Matter is what it's made of. So what about this word properties? What does that mean? Well, it's really about how we describe things. Everything has special characteristics that make it unique. Like water. It's matter. Can you think of ways to describe water? It's wet, smooth, it moves around a lot. You can see through it. These are all properties of water. By knowing these properties, I can decide that water is a good thing to dive into. What about something else like rocks? Remember The Rock I found in the cave? It had certain properties. But there are all kinds of rocks. Some are yellow, some are brown, some are even white. Some rocks are even softer than others, and some even smell different. By comparing the properties of matter, we can tell what kind of matter things are made of, and what it can be used for. We use properties every day. Think about it. As I get ready to make a smoothie, how do I decide what things to put in it? It's easy. I can use properties. How about some small soft blueberries? Sounds good. And maybe even some juicy red strawberries. What I put in something smooth, creamy and white, like milk. Sure, as long as it smells fresh too. Would it be a good idea to add some hard, rough rocks, no way. But the only way I can tell the difference between all these things is by their properties. What about the guy using this jackhammer? He's using the properties of the jackhammer. He knows that it's hard enough to break through the concrete in the road. How do you think he would do if he tried to use something with a different properties? Like, say, a popsicle. Let's check what we've learned so far. First of all, we discovered that everything in our world is made of matter. No matter how big or small, pretty much anything you can think of is matter. And we learn that we can describe different kinds of matter by comparing their properties. These are the special characteristics that make things unique like color, shape, size, smell, and hardness. So far, we've talked about properties we can observe using our senses. That means we can see, here, smell, touch, or taste them. What properties can we see with our eyes? Well, there's color. And shape. And what properties can we hear? Some things make sounds when they move. Or when you tap on them. And we can use our noses. I'm sure you know that there are many different kinds of smells in the world. That's another way we can tell things apart. When we touch things, they can feel soft or hard. They can feel smooth. Or rough. And we can taste the difference between all kinds of things. That's how we know what foods we like. But not everything has a special smell or makes a special sound, right? In the world of science, certain properties are used to describe all kinds of matter. They are mass, weight, volume, and density. Remember, all matter has these properties, even matter we can't see. First of all, let's talk about mass. Mass is the amount of matter that is in something. All matter has mass, no matter how small. One slice of cheese, for example, doesn't have much mass. But a whole pile of cheese has a lot of mass. The more matter, the more mass. The mass of an object doesn't change, even if the shape of the object changes. This block of clay is pushed and pulled. The shape changes a lot. But the mass of the clay stays the same. The next property we're going to talk about is weight. You know about weight. That's how heavy something is. A bowling ball is heavy. A pile of feathers is not. How much something weighs really depends on the object's math. The bowling ball has much more mass than the feathers, so it's heavier. The more mass, the more weight. This huge cake has a lot of mass. So I can tell you it is very heavy. But wait also depends on the force of gravity. That's what pulls everything down to the ground. When you drop something, it falls to the ground, pulled by gravity. But here's the thing to remember about weight. The more mass something has, the more gravity pulls on it. If there was no gravity, there would be no weight. You've probably seen astronauts working in space, and notice that they just seem to float around. While they do. But guess what? They're mass is exactly the same as it was here on earth. Every piece of matter no matter how small takes up space. Of course, the bigger something is, the more space it takes up. This is another property of matter. Volume. Volume is the amount of space something takes up. Think about a bowling ball again. Could you carry it around in your pocket? Nope. Takes up too much space, too much volume. But a golf ball on the other hand takes up much less space. Can you think of anything that takes up less space than a golf ball? Ah, yes, a gumball. It takes up less space, so we say it has less volume. I love my little car because it takes up hardly any space. When it's empty, there's lots of room inside. Not much mass. But let's say I ask a few friends to climb in. Then there would be a lot more mass in the same space as before. This is the property of density. How much mass is packed into a certain volume. It's like this. My car has volume, right? It takes up space. When it's tightly packed full of kids, we can say it has high density. But when the same space is empty, we can say it has lower density. Think of these orange dots as matter. Here they are packed very tightly together, so there is very little space between them. This matter is very dense. But here they are spread out so that there is much more space between them. This matter is less dense. All matter has density, it just depends on how much mass is packed into the space it takes up. The more tightly packed, the greater the density. Sometimes it's easy to see differences in density. Let me show you what I mean. Here I have some oil. And some vinegar. I'm going to pour some of both into two bottles. The next step is to shake. Yeah, you might think that the oil and vinegar are all mixed up. Then they are. But watch closely as they settle down, and you'll see that the oil rises to the top and the vinegar sinks to the bottom. Can you guess why? It's because of density. The oil is less dense than the vinegar. And there's a rule about density. It says that less dense liquids rise above more dense liquids. That's why the oil floats above the vinegar. Here are a couple of fun experiments you can try to actually see what density can do. First, you'll need a large beaker, some cooking oil, and some ice cubes. Our first experiment will test your powers of observation. And your patience. Fill one beaker halfway with cooking oil. Now, very gently place an ice cube into the oil. Here's the patient's part. Watch the ice cube for about 15 minutes. And note your observations. What happened to the ice as it melted and turned into water? The water sinks to the bottom of the beaker. Do you know why? Remember what we learned earlier. More dense liquids sink below less dense liquids. Knowing this, you can easily tell that the water is more dense than the oil. Okay, next experiment. This time you'll need two large beakers. Each half filled with water, salt, a spoon, and a hard boiled egg. In one of these beakers, add salt to the water. Put plenty in, you can stop when the water gets cloudy. And make sure you stir it well. Now you have a beaker of salt water and a beaker of plain water. Very slowly pour the plain water into the salt water beaker. This must be done very gently. You can pour it over the spoon and into the beaker so that it doesn't mix with the salt water. If you've done it right, you should be able to see a clear difference between the two kinds of water. What does this tell you about the density of salt water compared to plain water? Remember, the less dense liquid floats above the denser liquid. That means that denser liquid sinks below the less dense liquid. So we can see that salt water is denser than plain water. Now lower the hard boiled egg, very gently into the beaker. What happens to the egg? Note your observations and even draw what you're seeing. The egg seems to be floating in the middle of the beaker. Near the line between the salt water and plain water. What does this tell you about the density of the egg? Right. It must be less dense than salt water because it floats above the salt water. But more dense than plain water because it sinks below the plain water. The egg is right in the middle because its density is right in the middle. Okay, let's review the properties of masks, weight, volume, and density again. Masses the amount of matter in an object. The more matter, the more mass. Mass stays the same, even if the shape changes. Weight is how heavy something is. It depends on mass and the pull of gravity. Volume is the amount of space an object takes up. All matter takes up space so all matter has volume. And density is the amount of mass in a given volume. It's a measure of how tightly matter is packed together. I'm on this beautiful sailboat to talk about another way we can describe matter. Take a look around. Matter is everywhere. The boat is hard and strong and it keeps its shape. We say that it's solid. I'm solid. My car is solid. And a mountainous solid. Water, like the ocean all around me, is called a liquid. It has no real shape. It just keeps changing. But it does have definite volume. That's why we can pour it into cups and pictures. And while we can pour it on our pancakes. Now check out the sky. The air is matter. It takes up a huge amount of space. But it has no shape at all, and it spreads out as far as the eye can see. This kind of matter is called a gas. Come to think of it. It's a good thing air is a gas because we need to breathe it. Can you imagine if air was a solid? Well, this is a perfect place to wrap up for today. As you look around you at all the different kinds of matter in the world, try to think of all the different ways you can describe things. You can even make a list. See how many things you can come up with. And remember that they're all properties of matter. Bye for now.