StoryWeaver Grade 5🔬 Science

Around You: States of Matter

Sukanya Sinha · StoryWeaver · 3 min read
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A kettle and tea glasses in a market
A man and a child in a vegetable market

In the market you can spot fresh orange carrots, shiny purple brinjals, glasses of delicious watermelon juice.

A market scene

You can also see steam rising from cups of hot chai at the tea stall.

A man selling vegetables

So many delicious things, and all of them so different. Some things look small, some look big, some are heavy and some light. Some feel too ripe and some unripe.

Market scene

Do they have anything in common? Yes, they all take up space and have weight. Even the air we breathe. Anything that occupies space and has weight is called matter. Almost everything around us is matter.

A man and a child with a dog

Matter can be found in three states — solid, liquid and gas. Carrots, brinjals, the glass and the cup are solids. They have a definite shape and take up a fixed amount of space.

A fruit juice stall

The watermelon juice in the glass and the chai in the cup are both liquids. They do not have a definite shape. They take the shape of the glass and the cup. They can be poured. They flow. But they also take up a fixed amount of space.

A man at a tea stall

The air we breathe is a gas. Gases have no definite shape and do not take up a fixed amount of space. Unlike a liquid, air can be squeezed into a tiny space or expand to fill a large space.

A child looking at carrots in the market

All matter is made up of tiny particles. In a solid, these particles are packed very tightly together, which gives a carrot or a cup its fixed shape and size.

a group of pots and containers

In a liquid, the particles are packed loosely and can move about easily. That is what allows water, oil, juice and chai to flow smoothly and not have a definite shape.

A child buying balloons

In a gas, the particles move about even more freely. They can be squeezed into a small space or spread out in a large space. This is why gases do not have a fixed shape or size.

Yellow backdrop

STATES OF MATTER

Most objects are solids, liquids or gases. However, they can change their state from one to the other when there is a change in the surroundings. Water, which is usually a liquid, behaves like a solid when it is put inside a freezer. There are also objects which cannot be strictly called either a solid, liquid or gas. Solids usually have fixed shape and liquids do not. However, a piece of sponge seems to have a fixed shape like most solids do but it can change shape very easily.