Organize Your Work
One thing to keep in mind as you prepare for this lesson's final assignment is that matter not only has categories but also forms a ladder of sorts, called a hierarchy. As you can see in the image above, matter sits at the top of that hierarchy, with its two main categories, pure substances and mixtures, directly below it. And pure substances and mixtures have categories (or subcategories) of their own.
This lesson does not require you to list or explain the two different types of mixtures (homogenious and heterogenious), but you should know enough now to define, describe and give examples of mixtures as a category, as well as for the two types of pure substances you have learned about.
For the final assignment you will use your notes and other evidence presented in this lesson to write an essay, or create a design project, that reflects that knowledge.
If you do create a design project, you might want to choose the "Infograph It" option on the next page to do so. For your infograph you will build a hierarchy very much like the one shown in the image above, create labels for each category, and then select images of examples for specific matter categories.
Use this table to help organize your work. Drag all the terms on this page to their proper categories. You can review your notes in My Work and any of the videos and glossary terms below.
Videos & Glossary Terms
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| Space | Pause/Play video playback |
| Enter | Pause/Play video playback |
| m | Mute/Unmute video volume |
| Up and Down arrows | Increase and decrease volume by 10% |
| Right and Left arrows | Seek forward or backward by 5 seconds |
| 0-9 | Fast seek to x% of the video. |
| f | Enter or exit fullscreen. (Note: To exit fullscreen in flash press the Esc key. |
| c | Press c to toggle captions on or off |
The whole universe, including you, is made up of stuff. And that stuff has a fancy name: matter.
Matter is what makes up everything around us. Anything that has mass- meaning it takes up space and has stuff inside-- is matter. Whether it’s a solid, liquid or gas, if you can put it in a jar and keep it there, then it’s matter. Ice cream, gold, water, air-- these are all matter. Things like light, sound, energy --these things have no mass and you can’t keep them in a jar. These are not matter.
What makes matter matter is if you take it apart to its most basic unit you get the same type of particle every time. An Atom. Even at its tiny size, it’s got mass -- “stuff” inside-- and it takes up space. Atoms form the building blocks of all matter, regardless of shape, size, or state.
So why should we care about atoms and matter? Well, the physical world around us is made up of matter, and matter is made up of atoms. And without understanding the basic gist of both of these concepts, we’d have a hard time making stuff out of them--phones, electronics, medicine, chemicals, you name it.
So whether it’s a ring on your finger or the phone in your hand, matter, and the atoms that compose it, definitely matter
| Keyboard Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
| Space | Pause/Play video playback |
| Enter | Pause/Play video playback |
| m | Mute/Unmute video volume |
| Up and Down arrows | Increase and decrease volume by 10% |
| Right and Left arrows | Seek forward or backward by 5 seconds |
| 0-9 | Fast seek to x% of the video. |
| f | Enter or exit fullscreen. (Note: To exit fullscreen in flash press the Esc key. |
| c | Press c to toggle captions on or off |
Matter is made up of atoms, but not all atoms are the same. There are atoms with more stuff inside (ex. Cs), and atoms with less stuff inside (H). All in all, there are 118 different types of atoms, determined by the arrangement and amount of the stuff inside.
And all matter is made up of combinations of these atoms--but there is a special kind of matter called elements that are substances made entirely of one type of atom-- so as you might imagine: 118 types of atoms mean there are 118 different elements. Gold, for example, is an element. If you break apart a piece of gold down to its smallest particles, you end of up with gold atoms- and only gold atoms.
And here is where it gets a tad tricky-- the term element refers to a substance made up of one type of atom (ie. Gold), and it refers to a single atom of that element. So no matter how many gold atoms are contained in that chunk of gold-- 1 billion or just one, it is considered an element (gold) because it can’t be broken down to anything simpler.
And when atoms of one element connect with atoms of another element to form molecules, the true chemistry begins, and VOILA! the zillions of different types of living and nonliving things that we define as matter.
| Keyboard Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
| Space | Pause/Play video playback |
| Enter | Pause/Play video playback |
| m | Mute/Unmute video volume |
| Up and Down arrows | Increase and decrease volume by 10% |
| Right and Left arrows | Seek forward or backward by 5 seconds |
| 0-9 | Fast seek to x% of the video. |
| f | Enter or exit fullscreen. (Note: To exit fullscreen in flash press the Esc key. |
| c | Press c to toggle captions on or off |
All matter is formed from atoms and the types of atoms are limited (118). But the ways in which the different atoms combine to form matter can get pretty complicated. Luckily, scientists have categorized matter to help us make sense of it all.
First, there are the pure substances- which are matter made up of single types of either atoms (ie. elements) or single types of molecules (which are atoms that are bonded together (H2O or salt)). They are considered “pure” substances because they are comprised of a single type of ingredient- In the case of the element, a single type of atom. In the case of a compound, a single type of molecule.
Then, there are mixtures- which is matter made up of pure substances that are mixed, but not bonded, together. Combine two compounds (ie. water + salt) and you get a mixture. Combine an element and a compound, and you get a mixture. Element + element? Yep, mixture. You can have mixture with lots of ingredients, and mixtures with only a few. The key is that mixtures are what you get when two or more pure substances are mixed, but not bonded, together.
And these categories--pure substances and mixtures--help scientists make sense of the matter around us.
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