Mass is the quantity of matter in a body.

More specifically, it is the measurement of the inertia or

sluggishness that a body, in the absence of friction, exhibits in response to any effort made to start it,
stop it, or change in any way from its original state of motion. Two items that have the same
dimensions could have different masses, and two different sized objects could have similar mass. Mass
does not change, no matter if you are in space or on Earth. Mass is a measure of the matter within a
body. Mass is measured in kilograms and grams (metric) and slugs (English).

Weight is the force of gravitational attraction on a body as observed on the rotating Earth or similar
situation. Weight on Earth and weight on the Moon of the same object, is different. The English system
is measured in ounces and pounds and the metric is measured in newtons and dynes.

Although the difference between mass and weight is real, on Earth mass and weight are very similar.
Many books do not distinguish the difference. This activity introduces the two words, mass and weight,
and acknowledges they are somehow different. This helps students in future labs.

Volume is the quantity of space a body occupies measured in liters and milliliters in the metric system
and ounces and pounds in the English system. The same volume of two different substances, may have
different weight and mass.

Students in the third grade just have to understand that weight and mass are similar but not the same.
Mathematical formulas can be used to distinguish the two easier, but not until a later grade!

PROCEDURE:

Go over the difference between volume, mass, and weight. Emphasize that on Earth the two
measurements are similar, but in space the differences are very important. For instance you will weigh
much less on the Moon than on Earth, but your mass is still the same. Gravity influences weigh, so the
larger the body like Jupiter, the more you will weigh. It is not important if children remember this, as
much as you begin their understanding of the difference.

If you have different scales and balances you should demonstrate mass, volume and weight. A balance
measures mass. A bath scale measures weight. Liter boxes or graduated cylinders measure volume. Go
over this several times. It is not easy to understand, but very important in later labs. Have the students
measure different things on the balance so they become familiar with using the balance.
You may want to use the worksheet and have students identify which of the instruments are used to
measure volume, weight, and mass. The graduated cylinder measures volume, the rest of the scales
(spring, balance, and scale) are used to measure weight and mass depending on the type of scale used.

What is the definition of mass?

The amount of matter inside an object.

What units are used to measure mass?

The units used to measure mass are grams and kilograms.

What instruments are used to measure mass?

The instrument used to measure mass is a balance.

What is the definition of volume?

The amount of space an object takes up.

What units are used to measure volume?

The units used to measure volume are centimeters and milliliters.

What instruments are used to measure volume?

The instruments used to measure volume are a ruler and a graduated cylinder.

What is the definition of density?

The definition of density is the amount of mass in one cubic centimeter.

What is the equation to find density?

The equation used to find density is to divide mass by volume

mass/volume

What units are used to measure to density?

The units used to measure density are grams and cubed centimeters.

volume

the amount of space an object takes up

mass

the amount of matter in an object

density

mass divided by volume

physical change

changing the shape, amount, color, or shape of the substance does not change its identity

chemical change

any change that ends up with a new substance with new properties

qualitative observation

observations based on shape, color, size, appearance

quantitative observation

observations that involve numbers

inference

an explanation about an observation

characteristic property

a trait used to identify a substance

Why Light and Heat Aren't Matter

The universe consists of both matter and energy. The Conservation Laws state that the total amount of
matter plus energy are constant in a reaction, but matter and energy may change forms.

Matter includes anything that has mass. Energy describes the ability to do work. While matter may have
energy, they are different from each other.

One easy way to tell matter and energy apart is to ask yourself whether what you observe has mass. If it
doesn't, it's energy! Examples of energy include any part of the electromagnetic spectrum, which
includes visible light, infrared, ultraviolet, x-ray, microwaves, radio, and gamma rays. Other forms of
energy are heat (which may be considered infrared radiation), sound, potential energy, and kinetic
energy.

Another way to distinguish between matter and energy is to ask whether something takes up space.
Matter takes up space. You can put it in a container. While gases, liquids, and solids take up space, light
and heat do not.
Usually matter and energy are found together, so it can be tricky to distinguish between them. For
example, a flame consists of matter in the form of ionized gases and particulates and energy in the form
of light and heat.

You can observe light and heat, but you can't weigh them on any scale.

Summary of Matter Characteristics

Matter takes up space and has mass.

Matter may contain energy.

Matter may be converted to energy.

Examples of Matter and Energy

Here are examples of matter and energy that you can use to help distinguish between them:

Energy

sunlight

sound

gamma radiation

energy contained in chemical bonds

electricity

Matter

hydrogen gas

a rock

an alpha particle (even though it can be released from radioactive decay)

Matter + Energy

Nearly any object has energy as well as matter. For example:

A ball sitting on a shelf is made of matter, yet has potential energy. Unless the temperature is absolute
zero, the ball also has thermal energy. If it's made of a radioactive material, it may also emit energy in
the form of radiation.

A raindrop falling from the sky is made of matter (water), plus it has potential, kinetic, and thermal
energy.

A lit light bulb is made of matter, plus it emits energy in the form of heat and light.

The wind consists of matter (gases in air, dust, pollen), plus it has kinetic and thermal energy.

A sugar cube consists of matter. It contains chemical energy, thermal energy, and potential energy
(depending on your frame of reference).

Other examples of things which are not matter include thoughts, dreams, and emotions. In a sense,
emotions may be considered to have a basis in matter because they are related to neurochemistry.
Thoughts and dreams, on the other hand, may be recorded as energy patterns.
Is light matter or non-matter?

22 Answers

Brian Bi

Brian Bi, hard science nerd

Answered Jan 4, 2014 · Author has 3.5k answers and 29m answer views

Originally Answered: Is light matter?

You may recall the common textbook definition, "matter is anything that has mass and takes up space".
Well, light doesn't have mass, and it doesn't take up space; photons don't repel each other when they
get too close together the way atoms do. So no, light isn't matter.
Informally, physicists may use "matter" as a synonym for "fermions", since fermions have the property
of taking up space, due to the Pauli exclusion principle. Light is not made up of fermions; photons are
bosons, not fermions. That's why light doesn't take up space.

Answer 1:

Before we get into answering your question, we need to define weight and mass.

The mass of an object is the quantity of matter it possesses.The important thing to

remember about mass is that it is constant, and therefore if you are on Earth, the Moon, Mars,
or anywhere, your mass is always going to be the same.

Weight is defined as the product of a body's mass and the gravitational acceleration in
which the mass is located. (Weight = Mass x Gravity) What this means is that your weight
depends on both your mass (which doesn't change) and the gravitation force of the place you
are located.

A place with less gravity would cause an object to have less weight. The moon is much smaller
than the earth. So on the moon, where there is less gravity, you would weigh less than you do
on Earth where there is more gravity.

The force of gravity on the moon is only about one sixth as strong as gravity on earth. Gravity
is what holds us down on the earth's (or moon's) surface. If you were to weigh yourself on a
scale on earth and then on the moon, the weight read on the moon would be 1/6 your earth
weight. To figure out how much YOU would weigh on the moon, take your weight and divide it
by 6.

So, if you weighed 100 pounds on earth, you would weigh only about 16 pounds on the moon. If
you weigh 60 pounds on Earth, on the moon you will weigh about 10 pounds. If you weigh 120
pounds on Earth, you will weigh about 20 pounds on the moon.

Since weight is caused by the mass of two objects that are near each other, the bigger the
objects, the more the force of gravity. If you weigh 100 pounds on the earth, you would weigh
more on a larger planet... like Jupiter where you would weigh about 236 pounds.
Teacher Site Map

7th Grade Core

USOE Science Home Page

USOE

It is usually easy to find the mass and volume of different solids and liquids. To find the mass of a solid,
just place it on the scale.

Finding the mass of a liquid is a little trickier. First find the mass of an empty container that will hold the
liquid. Then fill the container with the designated amount of liquid and weigh it on the scale. The last
step is to subtract the mass of the empty container from the mass of the container with the liquid. The
difference is the mass of the liquid!

Finding volume requires a different set of techniques. Pour the volume you want to find into a
graduated cylinder or a beaker and read the volume in milliliters (ml).

Measuring the volume of solids is a different process. If the solid in question is a regular
square/rectangular shape, then you can find the volume by measuring it's length, width, and height.
Multiply those three measurements, and you have found the volume. Make sure that your
measurements are in centimeters (cm). This way your volume measurements are AUTOMATICALLY in
volume units. In other words, one cubic centimeter (cm3) is the SAME as one milliliter (mL), which is the
unit of measure displayed on graduated cylinders and beakers. If the solid is an irregular shape, the
volume displacement method needs to be used. Use a beaker or graduated cylinder that can hold the
solid. Put a specific amount of water into the container and record this volume. Next place the solid to
be measured into the container and measure and record the volume of the water/solid combination.
Subtract the original volume from the combined volume and the difference is the volume of the solid.
But how do you measure the volume of a gas? How do you measure the mass of a gas? Does a gas like
air have enough mass to measure in the lab? Does air weigh anything? It must weigh something, since it
IS matter, and matter has both volume AND mass.

This activity will give you a way to estimate the mass and volume of a gas like air. What kind of container
can we use to hold the air? A beaker? A graduated cylinder? It would just leak out, and they are
probably already filled with air, so these containers wouldn't work too well. We will use a balloon, since
it is made just for this purpose!

Problems: How can you estimate the mass of air? How can you estimate the density of a quantity of air?
Will the density measurements change as the amount of air in the balloon increases?

What are different methods of measuring the mass of gas?

- Angie (age 16 )

Little Silver, NJ

A:

I can think of some methods of doing it, but doubtless I cannot think of them all! Perhaps you can add to
my list. Some techniques may be more accurate than others, and some may be harder than others to
carry out.

1) Put the gas in a closed container and weigh it on a scale. There are two things to be careful about
here -- one is the weight of the container and the other is the buoyant force arising from the fact that
the container with the gas in it is being weighed with air all around. Buoyant forces are strong when the
environment is water, but they can be noticeable in air, particularly when trying to weigh gases. For
example, a very light, thin container of helium may float away off of the scale. Helium doesn't have a
negative weight or density, it just has a density less than that of the surrounding air. The buoyant force
is the weight of the air that's displaced by the container. By weighing a container full of gas, you are
measuring the weight of the gas plus the weight of the container minus the buoyant force. You can then
fill the container with air and weigh it. The weight of the container and the buoyant force will be the
same, and the difference in the weights will be the difference between the weight of the gas and the
weight of the air. You'll have to look up the density of air somewhere or weigh it in a different way.
Alternatively, if you have two identical containers, one which you can put a good vacuum in and the
other which you can fill with gas, you can put them on a balance and add extra mass to one side of the
balance until it balances. This extra mass will be the same as the mass of the gas.

2) If you know what the composition of the gas is, you can look its density up in a table somewhere and
measure its volume. Multiplying density by volume gives mass.

3) Ball-in-tube flowmeters really are mass flow meters. Gas will flow through a vertical tube which has a
slight taper from the top to the bottom (smaller on the bottom, larger on top). A little steel ball sits in
the tube. As the gas flows by, it pushes the ball up. The tube is marked off in grams per second. By
flowing the gas through such a device at a constant rate, measuring the flow rate in grams/sec and
multiplying it by the time it takes for the gas to flow by, gives the mass of the gas.

(n.b. -- this probably doesn't work well for viscous gases, or ones that corrode the tube or the ball).

4) You could try dissolving the gas in water and measure the mass of the water on a scale or balance
before and after dissolving it. Be careful about evaporation, though!

5) You can freeze the gas and put the frozen gas on a scale or balance. This only works well for some
gases, like carbon dioxide, which freeze solid at temperatures which do not take too much money to
attain. Nitrogen liquefies nicely, and the Physics Van uses liquid nitrogen in its demos.

6) Perhaps the most precise way I can think of right off the top of my head for measuring the density of
a gas is to measure the speed of sound in it. You also have to measure its compressibility. The speed of
sound in a gas is sqrt(compressibility/density), where the compressibility is how much the volume
changes when the pressure changes, without any heat exchange with the environment. If the gas is
placed in a tube, the length of the tube and the speed of sound in the tube determine the resonant
frequencies of sound in the tube, which can be measured very very precisely. Once one uses these
things to measure the density of the gas, then measuring the volume of the gas gives its mass. Of course
if you can look up the density, then method 2) is much easier than doing this.

Gas volumes

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The volume of gas produced can be used to follow the course of a reaction. Gas volumes can be
measured using a gas syringe or an upturned measuring cylinder or burette. The mass of gas produced
can be measured using a sensitive balance. A limiting reactant is all used up at the end of a reaction,
while a reactant in excess is not all used up. The volume of one mole of gas is called the molar gas
volume.

Collecting gases

Measuring volume

The volume of gas made in a reaction can be measured. The gas may be collected over water using an
upturned burette or an upturned measuring cylinder.

The burette or measuring cylinder is filled with water before being turned upside down over a trough of
water. As the gas bubbles in, it pushes the water out. The water level is then read off the scale on the
burette or measuring cylinder.

Apparatus arranged to measure the volume of gas in a reaction. Reaction mixture is in a flask and gas
travels out through a pipe in the top and down into a trough of water. It then bubbles up through a
beehive shelf into an upturned glass jar filled with water. The gas collects at the top of the jar, forcing
water out into the trough below
Collecting a gas over water – an upturned measuring cylinder or burette can be used in place of the gas
jar so that the volume can be measured

This works well for insoluble gases, such as hydrogen, or gases that do not dissolve easily in water, such
as oxygen and carbon dioxide. Ammonia and chlorine are readily soluble in water and are not collected
this way. Instead, they may be measured using a gas syringe, which can be used to collect and measure
the volume of any gas.

The volume of gas is determined by reading the scale on the side of the gas syringe.

Measuring mass

Instead of measuring the volume of a gas, its mass may be measured using a sensitive balance capable
of recording mass to two decimal places (eg 0.01 g). This works well for dense gases such as carbon
dioxide, but less well for gases such as hydrogen.

It is usual for the reaction to be done in a conical flask on top of the balance. Cotton wool is put into the
neck to stop liquid droplets escaping. As the gas escapes through the cotton wool, the mass goes down.
Length is?

An objects length is the number of units that fits from one to other

How can length be measured?

Can be measured in units called meters or centimeters

What can you used to measure length?

You can use a ruler, meter stick, or measuring tape

Volumes is?

Volumes is how much space a substance takes up

How is volume measured?

Metric system

What can be used to measure volume?

Liquids volumes are measured in units called letters or milliliters.

What tools can be used to measure volume?

Measuring cup, a beaker, and graduated cylinder

Temperature is?

Measure how cold or hot something is

How do we measure temperature?

Measured in degrees Celsius or degrees of Fahrenheit

What tool can be used to Measure tempreature

A thermometer

Mass is?

Mass is the amount of matter in a given space

How is mass measured?

It is measured in Grams or kilograms

What is used to measure mass?

Can be measured in a double pan balance or triple-beam balance

Density is?

The amount of matter in a given space.

How is density described?

How tightly matter is packed together

Density can affect objects by?

whether it floats or sinks

How do we find the density?

The density of an object is divided by it's volume

Weight is?

Amount of of gravity between an object and a planet, such as Earth

How can different planets affect weight?

weight might be different on different planets

How is weight measured in?

In metric units of newtons (N)

What is used to Measure Weight?

A scale

What is a physical changes?

It begins and ends with the same matter

How can you tell there has been a physical change?

A change in size, shape, position, or texture

What are the states of Matter?

Solid, liquid, and gas

What is a Solid?

A definite shape and takes up a definite amount of space

What is a liquid?

Does not a definitive shape and takes the shape o a container.

Can a Liquid take take up a definitive space?

No

What is a gas?

Dose not have a shape and does not take up a definitive amount of space.

What is a change of state?

Is a physical change in which one state of matter changes to another.

After the Change of state what happens to the volume?

The Volume substance can change

What will happen with mass and change of state?

It will stay the same

What is heating do to particles?

The particles move faster

What happens to a solid when you heat it?

The solid will melt

What is melting?

A solid will become a liquid

What is Boiling?

When a Liquid becomes a gas

What is Evaporation?

A change in a liquid to a gas with out boiling

Cooling is?

When you take energy away from a substance, its particles mover slower.
What happens to gas if its Cooled?

the gas will condense to a liquid

What happens to a liquid when it's cooled?

The liquid will turn into a solid

What is a mixture?

Can result from physical changes of two or more substances

You are measuring a container of water what will you use?

Balance

Which characteristic of sugar cube does NOT change?

Mass

How does water behave on a hot summers Day?

The water will evaporate into the air

What type of change occurs when a piece of paper is washed up?

Change in texture