83 How Things Are Different-High

How Things Are Different Written by Katherine Follett

Introduction Look around you. You see many things. What are they made of? Why are different things made of different stuff? Would you wear a shirt made of wood? Could you pound in a nail with a hammer made of paper? Why not? These might seem like silly questions. But they help you think about why things are made of different stuff.

Matter In science, the stuff that things are made of is called matter. In this book, you will learn about different kinds of matter. You will learn why we use different matter to make different things. When we study matter, two words are important to know. One word is material. Materials are what we use to make things. What kinds of materials can you name?

The other word that is important to know is property. Look, feel, size, and shape are each a property of matter. Matter can be hard or soft. It can be wet or dry. These are properties of matter. What other properties can you think of? Think about a pencil. What words would you use to describe it? What materials is it made of? What properties do these materials have?

When we make things, we use materials with properties that help each thing do its job. A property of sugar is that it is sweet. So we use sugar to make cookies sweet. An artist uses paints of different colors to make a picture. Properties of matter are important for all the things we make.

Solid, Liquid, and Gas There are three kinds of matter. A lot of the matter you see around you is solid. It has a certain shape and takes up a certain amount of space. If you were a fish, most of the matter around you would be liquid water. A liquid takes up a certain amount of space but easily changes shape. If you pour water from a bottle into a bowl, it takes the shape of the bowl. But it takes up the same amount of space.