Matter: What is It?

Ever wonder what the universe is made of? One answer, Matter. Substances such as wood, metal, water are all forms of matter. Even we are made out of matter. Matter is anything that has mass or volume. Properties which describe matter can be specific or general. However, all matter has the same general properties of mass, weight, volume, and density. The most important property of matter would mass. Mass is the amount of matter in an object. The amount of mass of an object is constant unless matter is added or taken away from the object. Moving an object from one place to another doesn't change its mass. Because of mass an object has weight. Weight on the other hand is not constant like mass. It changes. For example your weight can differ after a large meal. Weight, however can change from location to location. As we may know a ball thrown in the air must come down. This is because of gravity. The ball must come down from the Earth's force of attraction of all objects. Without you knowing it you are attracted to several objects like paper and books. The gravitational pull is too weak for us to notice. Due to Earth's massive size the gravitational force is much more greater which is keeping us from floating into space. An objects weight is determined by the pull of gravity. You weigh less at the top of a mountain than you do at sea level. This is because you are farther away from Earth than you are at sea level. The metric unit for measuring weight is the newton(N). Last two general properties of matter are volume and density. Volume is the amount of space an object takes up. Liter(L), milliliter (mL), and cubic centimeters (CM3) is what volume is measured in. Both liter and milliliter are for liquids as cubic centimeters are for solids. The last property of matter would density. Density is the mass per unit volume of an object. This property lets us compare the different types of matter. To find the density you must divide mass by volume. Density is referred as grams per milliliter(g/mL) or grams per cubic centimeters(g/cm3). Currently we were learning about the general properties of matter.
Mass
Density=---------
Volume



I believe it is important to know what is in our surrounding and how to tell the difference between objects. For example if you wanted to buy a large pack of an object instead of a large pack we could tell the difference by their two masses. Without us even knowing that matter is everywhere.

http://www.angelfire.com/mo/matter/