First year of secondary education
Matter

E. Vallo y  J. Villasuso
Matter
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What is matter?
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Everything we can see and touch is matter. Things that we cannot see, like air, are also matter.
We see that matter occupies a certain part of space which we call volume. In the case of the air this is not immediately evident, but the following experiment will help us to prove it.

Click on "Practical experiment" read the instructions and carry out the suggested experiment.

This is a general property of matter: matter occupies volume.
Another essential property of matter is that matter has mass, something which we experience every time we weigh different objects on some scales.
Not only what is at hand is matter. The planets, the sun and the rest of the stars, the galaxies...are also matter. And also at a microscopic level, cells, viruses, DNA are also matter...
We can say that everything that occupies a volume and has mass is matter. Matter forms all the bodies in the universe.

Click on next (at the top right of the page), to find out more about matter.

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Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte

What is it?
Properties
Volume
Mass
Density
Organization of matter
The attraction between masses
The effects of gravity
Electric charge
Particles
From simple to complex
Elements and compounds
States of aggregation
Solid
Liquid
Gas
Plasma
Changes of state
Evaluation