Matter and Its Properties
Study it inChemistry Level 1: What Is Stuff Made Of?
Map
Arrows point from what you learn first to what it opens. Point at a concept to light up its chain and where it comes back deeper. Right-click a concept (or press and hold it) for its lessons and stories.
- Proven to depth123
- Open
- Locked
- Comes back deeper
Learning path
In the order the concepts build on each other.
- MatterReadyAnything that has mass and takes up space - a rock, water, you, and even the invisible air. Light, sound and heat are real, but they are not matter.
- Separating mixturesLockedThe parts of a mixture keep their own properties, so they can be pulled apart by a property where they differ: a sieve by size, a magnet for iron and steel, a filter for bits of solid in a liquid, and evaporating for something dissolved.Opens after: Dissolving
- Properties of materialsLockedObjects are made of materials (wood, metal, glass, plastic), and each material has its own properties: hard or soft, bendy or stiff, shiny or dull, magnetic or not, letting heat through or not. We choose a material for a job by its properties.Opens after: Matter
- States of matterLockedNearly all matter is a solid, a liquid or a gas. A solid keeps its shape, a liquid takes the shape of its container but keeps its amount, and a gas spreads out to fill any container.Opens after: Matter
- Melting and freezingLockedMelting turns a solid into a liquid as heat goes in; freezing turns a liquid into a solid as heat goes out. The stuff stays the same, and each kind of stuff melts and freezes at its own temperature (water at 0 °C).Opens after: States of matter
- MixtureLockedTwo or more substances put together without changing them, each keeping its own properties - like air, sea water or a salad. A pure substance is only one kind of stuff, with only one kind of particle.Opens after: Properties of materials
- Evaporation and condensationLockedA liquid can turn into a gas: slowly at its surface (evaporating) or with bubbles all through it at its boiling point (boiling, 100 °C for water at sea level). Water as a gas, water vapour, is invisible; when it cools it condenses back into liquid drops.Opens after: Melting and freezing
- Particle modelLockedAll matter is made of tiny particles, far too small to see, that never stop moving. How tightly they are packed and how fast they move explains solids, liquids and gases, and heating makes them move faster.Opens after: Evaporation and condensation
Connections to other domains
- Particle model leads to AtomAtoms and Elements
- Properties of materials leads to Metals and non-metalsAtoms and Elements
- Melting and freezing leads to Physical and chemical changeChemical Reactions
- Separating mixtures needs DissolvingSolutions, Acids and Bases
- Mixture leads to DissolvingSolutions, Acids and Bases
- Particle model leads to DissolvingSolutions, Acids and Bases