Anything that exhibits inertia is known as matter. The quantity of matter is its mass. Example: chalk table. In simple language, Anything which has mass and occupies space is called Matter.
Matter can exist in three physical states viz. solid, liquid, and gas.
The constituent particles of matter in these three states can be represented as shown in the figure:A Representation of the Solid, Liquid, and Gas States
Because of such an arrangement of particles, different states of matter exhibit the following characteristics:
These three states of matter are interconvertible by changing the conditions of temperature and pressure.
This classification of the matter is based upon the chemical composition of various substances. According to this matter can be further divided into two types, pure substance, and mixture.
Mixtures are also of two types, homogenous mixtures, and heterogeneous mixtures.
Classification of Matter
The primary stuff present in all the substances is known as an element, whose smallest unit is known as an atom.
Sodium, copper, silver, hydrogen, oxygen, etc. are some examples of elements. They all contain atoms of one type. However, the atoms of different elements are different in nature.
A non-elemental pure substance is called a compound in which more than one atom of elements are linked by chemical bonds formed due to chemical reaction. The resulting molecule is an electrically neutral particle of constant continuous composition.
Mixtures are the aggregate of more than one type of pure substance whose chemical identity remains maintained even in mixtures. Their constituent ratio may vary, unlike compound.
Example:
There are two types of mixture:
(a) Homogeneous
(b) Heterogenous
Table: Comparison between Homogeneous and Heterogeneous mixtures
Table: Comparison between Compound and Mixtures