Matter
By: Mrs. Crisp
S.P.I
Academic Vocabulary
Element
A pure substance that cannot be broken down into any simpler
substance through chemical reaction.
Atom
The smallest unit of an element that has the properties of that
element.
Nucleus
The center of an atom.
Academic Vocabulary
Proton
A particle in the nucleus of an atom that carries one
unit of positive electric charge.
Neutron
A particle in the nucleus of an atom that has no electric
charge.
Electron
A particle in the space outside the nucleus of an atom
that carries one unit of negative electric charge.
Academic Vocabulary
Molecule
A particle that contains more than one atom joined
together.
What is matter?
Matter is anything that takes up space.
What is matter made of?
Almost everything in the world is made of matter.
Element
A pure substance that cannot be broken down into
any simpler substance through chemical reaction.
Can you name some elements?
Aristotle
A Greek philosopher, Aristotle, believed that all matter
is made of the elements earth, air, water and fire.
Could this be true?
Modern scientists know this is not true.
Fire is not matter.
Water can be broken down into hydrogen and oxygen.
Air and earth are made up of many different materials.
What is matter made of?
Most elements are solid, some are gases, and a few are
liquid at room temperature.
Atom
The smallest unit of an element that has the
properties of that element.
What are atoms and elements
made of?
Atoms are made up of even smaller particles.
These particles are not elements, but are the same for
every type of atom.
The nucleus is the center of an atom.
It is made up of protons and neutrons.
What are atoms and elements
made of?
Proton
The proton is particle with one unit of positive
electric charge.
The number of protons in an atom is called the atomic
number and determines which element it is.
What are atoms and elements
made of?
Neutron
The neutron is a particle with no electric charge – it is
neutral.
What are atoms and elements
made of?
Electron
Electrons are smaller particles with one unit of
negative electric charge each. Electrons move around
in the space and outside the necleus.
Usually, the numbers of electrons and protons are
equal.
What are atoms and elements
made of?
Protons and neutrons usually have about the same
mass. This mass is called the atomic mass unit.
Electrons are smaller and have about 1,800 times less
mass than protons and neutrons.
Molecules
Molecules
A particle that contains more than one atom joined
together.
Most of the atoms in the world exist as a molecule,
not on their own.
When a molecule forms from elements, the atoms link
together through their electrons.
Scientists describe molecules by combining letter and
numbers.
How are elements grouped?
Each chemical element has a name and a symbol.
The symbols for most elements are one or two letters.
The first letter is always capitalized but the second
letter is never capitalized.
When an element has just been discovered, it is given a
three letter temporary.
How are elements grouped?
Some symbols look like their English name, like C is for
carbon. Others come from ancient names, such as Au
for gold, whose Latin name is aurum.
How are elements grouped?
Each chemical element has a name and a symbol.
The symbols for most elements are one or two letters.
The first letter is always capitalized but the second
letter is never capitalized.
When an element has just been discovered, it is given a
three letter temporary.
How are elements grouped?
How do we examine elements?
Atoms are extremely small.
A single hydrogen atom is only 0.0000000001 m across.
That is around 1 millionth of the width of a human
hair.
Even larger atoms are too small to be seen with an
ordinary light microscope.
Special electron microscopes used electrons instead
of light particles to examine a sample.
How do we examine elements?
Another special microscope called the scanning
tunneling microscope, also shows single atoms.
This instrument has a needle tip that moves over a
surface. The needle is so extensive that is moves up
and down over each atom in the surface. The up and
down motions are turned into an image.