Hinglish

What is Matter?

Class 6 Science · Chapter 6: Materials Around Us · NCERT Curiosity section 6.4

Learn

Divit blows up a balloon. It gets bigger, so something must be inside: air. The air takes up space. If he weighs the balloon before and after, the full one is a tiny bit heavier: air has mass too.

Anything that has mass and takes up space is called matter. Books, water, air, your body, a stone: all are matter. Matter can be solid, liquid or gas.

Some things are not matter: light, sound, heat, and feelings like happiness have no mass and do not fill space like matter does.

Explore: matter or not?

  1. Sort each one.

Remember

  • Matter is anything that has mass and takes up space; it can be solid, liquid or gas.
  • Light, sound and heat are not matter.

Quick check

Which of these is matter?

  1. Air
  2. Light
  3. Sound
  4. Happiness
Answer

Air. Air has mass and takes up space.

Think about it

How could you show that air takes up space, using an empty bottle, a bowl of water and nothing else?

One answer

Push the bottle mouth-down into the water. The water does not fill the bottle, because air is already inside. Tilt it and bubbles escape as water comes in.

Practice

Practise with fresh questions at three levels (easy, medium, hard), some answered hands-on, with hints and worked answers. Get 4 of your last 5 right to finish the topic.