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Unit 3: Matter Page 19
marbles (which we know they’re you need to know is...what’s
not from the last lessons but it’s a everything?
useful model), then something is
more dense if its marbles are Everything is matter. Well,
jammed close together. except for energy, but that’s
everything else (and we’ll get to
For example, take a golf ball and a that later). Everything you can
ping pong ball. Both are about the touch and feel is matter. It is made
same size or, in other words, take up of solid (kind of) atoms that
up the same volume. However, one combine and form in different ways
is much heavier, has more mass, to create light poles, swimming
than the other. The golf ball has its pools, poodles, jello and even the
atoms much more closely packed smell coming from your pizza.
together than the ping pong ball
and as such the golf ball is denser. Traditionally, there have been
three states of matter. State of
Here’s a riddle: Which is heavier, matter means the way the atoms
a pound of bricks or a pound of tend to hang out together. Not to
feathers? Well, they both weigh a be confused with a state like Utah,
pound so neither one is heavier! Wyoming, or confusion. The three
Now, take a look at it this way, states are solids, liquids and gases.
which is denser, a pound of bricks However, leave it up to a science
or a pound of feathers? Aha! The teacher to tell you that that’s not
pound of bricks is much denser the whole story.
since it takes up much less space.
The bricks and the feathers weigh There are two more states of
the same but the bricks take up a matter. They are plasma and (are
much smaller volume. The atoms you ready for this next one?) the
in a brick are much more Bose-Einstein condensate. I’m just
squooshed together then the going to spend a little bit of time
atoms in the feathers. talking about these last two states
of matter since they are both
What is ‘stuff’ made of? pretty uncommon on Earth.
Now, that you’ve spent some Plasma
quality time with atoms and that
wacky electron fellow you have a Believe it or not, plasma makes up
bit of an understanding of what is a very large percentage of the
inside everything. The next thing matter in the universe. Are you
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