Matter: Definition & the Five States of Matter

            Matter is all around us. Matter is the air you are breathing. Matter is the computer you are reading from now. Matter is the stuff you touch and see. And it is more. Matter is defined as anything that has mass and takes up space. Matter is found in 3 major states; solid, liquid and gas.
Also Read :GRAVITATIONAL FORCE: DEFINITION, EQUATION & EXAMPLES

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           So what is matter made of? All matter is made of atoms. Atoms are the smallest particle of matter. They are so small that you cannot see them with your eyes or even with a standard microscope. A standard sheet of paper is about a million atoms thick. Science has come up with a technology to identify atoms called a scanning tunneling microscope  ( STM ) which uses electricity to map atoms. There is more about atoms later, but first let's learn about the three states of matter.

Solids

Matter that is composed of atoms packed tightly together are known as solids. You cannot walk through a solid wall. The matter is packed so tight that it prevents you from moving through it. Solids hold their shape at room temperature. The pencil that you left in the desk at school will still be the same shape when you return tomorrow.
                Even in solids there is a small space between the atoms. Depending on how tight the atoms are packed determines the density of matter. This means that a one inch block of wood is not as dense as a one inch block of gold. There is more space between the atoms of the wood than the atoms of the gold.

Liquids

Liquids do not hold their shape at room temperature. There is space between the atoms of a liquid and they move slightly all of the time. This allows you to stick your finger into water and pull it back out, letting the water fill back in where your finger once was. But when walking through the water in the swimming pool, you have to push the water out of the way ‐ this means that you feel the heaviness of the water. Liquids flow or pour and can take on the shape of a container. If the liquid is poured into a wider or narrower container, the liquid will take on that new shape. Liquids are affected by gravity. If you pour only half a cup of milk, the top half of the container would have no milk. Liquids cannot be handed to another person well without the container. Imagine going into a restaurant and asking for lemonade. What if the waiter just put the lemonade into your hands ‐ no glass or cup? Could you lay the lemonade on the table to drink in a few minutes? Even water in a river or a lake has a container ‐ the banks, the bottom, the shore ‐ they form the container

Gases

Gases not only do not hold their shape at room temperature, they don't even stay put. Gases are always moving. There is so much space between the atoms in gas that you can move around in them easily. When you walk from one side of the room to the other, you have walked through a bunch of gases that make up our air. You barely even know they are there. Gases will take on the shape of their container and can be compressed into a smaller space. Like when we compress air into a balloon ‐ it fills out the balloon shape. Gases will fill up the space too. You don't see only half of the balloon filled with air ‐ the air is not as influenced by gravity as a liquid or a solid would be.For a better understanding, take a look at these animations of the behavior of solids, liquids and gases.

Plasma

We often talk about the three states of matter; solid, liquid and gas. Most of the matter that we use is in one of those three forms. But there is another that we see and use and that we would have a hard time living without ‐ plasma. It is often called the fourth state of matter. Plasma is electrically charged, does not hold its shape, has a huge amount of energy and is very difficult state to manipulate without a laboratory. Plasma can be found here on the earth in flames, lightning, and the polar auroras. The sun, the stars, and some other space events and objects are also made of plasma matter.

More States of Matter?

Did you know that there are more phases of matter? We aren't as familiar with  them nor do we see them every day. Some exist only in theory, others can be reproduced in laboratories, some are so new that scientists are still figuring out the details and others might exist, but have not yet been found in nature. They include: quark-gluon plasma, Bose-Einstein condensates, fermionic condensates, strange matter, liquid crystals, quantum spin liquid (QSL), super fluids, super solids and the para magnetic and ferromagnetic phases of magnetic materials. New theories and discoveries are happening all of the time, so you'll have to keep studying your physical science to learn more about these states of matter.