“What is matter?”
“Matter is anything that has mass and occupies space.”
Based on this definition, there are 2 important properties that have to be fulfilled in order to be classified as matter:
- Has mass
- Occupies space
What Does It Mean To Have Mass?
- Does it give a reading when you place it on a weighing scale?
- Does it feel heavier if you carry more of it?
What Does It Mean To Occupy Space?
- Does it have to be removed in order for another object to take its place?
- Does it take up space when placed in a container or location?
- If the answers to the above questions are “yes”, the object is classified as matter. However, if the answers to the questions are “no”, the object is classified to be a non-matter.
With this understanding, we will now focus on the property “Matter occupies space” in this post.
All matter occupies space but how do we know how much space different matter occupy?
We measure its volume.
“Volume is the amount of space that a body or object occupies.”
The volume of regular objects, such as a cube, can be calculated by multiplying its length, breadth and height.
For irregular objects, such as a stone, we measure its volume using water and a measuring cylinder/beaker.
