Matter

Matter is everything around us. They are found in four forms:

This picture shows a Solid (the snowman), a Liquid (the glass of water), and a Gas (the cloud):

Plasma is an extremely heated Gas:

Matter can be divided into two categories: Mixtures and Pure Substances. First, let's take a look at Mixtures and what can be derived from them...

Mixtures:
- they have more than one set of properties
- they are physically combined
- they can be seperated into pure substances (which we will take a look at later)
From mixtures, we can further divide them into Homogeneous and Heterogeneous

Homogeneous:
-substance is uniform
-looks like it only has one component
From here, we can divide them one last time into Solutions and Colloids

Heterogeneous:
-substance is not uniform
-looks like it has more than one component
These can be further seperated into Suspensions and Mechanical Mixtures

Now, let's look at Pure Substances...

Pure Substances:
-only have one set of properties
-made up of one kind of particle
These can be broken down into Elements and Compounds

Elements:
-simplest form of matter
-cannot be broken down further
-atoms make them up
Elements can be found on the Periodic Table in three different groups: Metals, Non-Metals and Metalloids
These can be chemically combined to form Compounds

Compounds:
-made up of different elements
-their smallest particle is called a molecule
There are two kinds of Compounds: Ionic and Covalent

Ionic Compounds can be Acids, Salts, or Bases
Covalent Compounds are Organic

So, that is basically how Matter works. Take a look at this video to help some more with the basic understanding of Matter...