Both you and the speck of dust consist of atoms of matter. So does the ground beneath your feet. In fact, everything you can see and touch is made of matter. The only things that arent matter are forms of energy, such as light and sound. Although forms of energy are not matter, the air and other substances they travel through are. So what is matter? Matter is defined as anything that has mass and volume. Mass is the amount of matter in a substance or object. Mass is commonly measured with a balance. A simple mechanical balance is shown in Figure 3.1. It allows an object to be matched with other objects of known mass. SI units for mass are the kilogram, but for smaller masses grams are often used instead. The more matter an object contains, generally the more it weighs. However, weight is not the same thing as mass. Weight is a measure of the force of gravity pulling on an object. It is measured with a scale, like the kitchen- scale in Figure 3.2. The scale detects how forcefully objects in the pan are being pulled downward by the force of gravity. The SI unit for weight is the newton (N). The common English unit is the pound (lb). With Earths gravity, a mass of 1 kg has a weight of 9.8 N (2.2 lb). Problem Solving Problem: At Earths gravity, what is the weight in newtons of an object with a mass of 10 kg? Solution: At Earths gravity, 1 kg has a weight of 9.8 N. Therefore, 10 kg has a weight of (10 9.8 N) = 98 N. You Try It! Problem: If you have a mass of 50 kg on Earth, what is your weight in newtons? An object with more mass is pulled by gravity with greater force, so mass and weight are closely related. However, the weight of an object can change if the force of gravity changes, even while the mass of the object remains constant. Look at the photo of astronaut Edwin E. Aldrin Jr taken by fellow astronaut Neil Armstrong, the first human to walk on the moon, in Figure 3.3. An astronaut weighed less on the moon than he did on Earth because the moons gravity is weaker than Earths. The astronauts mass, on the other hand, did not change. He still contained the same amount of matter on the moon as he did on Earth. The amount of space matter takes up is its volume. How the volume of matter is measured depends on its state. The volume of liquids is measured with measuring containers. In the kitchen, liquid volume is usually measured with measuring cups or spoons. In the lab, liquid volume is measured with containers such as graduated cylinders. Units in the metric system for liquid volume include liters (L) and milliliters (mL). The volume of gases depends on the volume of their container. Thats because gases expand to fill whatever space is available to them. For example, as you drink water from a bottle, air rushes in to take the place of the water. An "empty" liter bottle actually holds a liter of air. How could you find the volume of air in an "empty" room? The volume of regularly shaped solids can be calculated from their dimensions. For example, the volume of a rectangular solid is the product of its length, width, and height (l w h). For solids that have irregular shapes, the displacement method is used to measure volume. You can see how it works in Figure 3.4 and in the video below. The SI unit for solid volumes is cubic meters (m3 ). However, cubic centimeters (cm3 ) are often used for smaller volume measurements. Matter has many properties. Some are physical properties. Physical properties of matter are properties that can be measured or observed without matter changing to a different substance. For example, whether a given substance normally exists as a solid, liquid, or gas is a physical property. Consider water. It is a liquid at room temperature, but if it freezes and
Output: anything that has mass and volume