Matter: Molecules and the States of Matter
Everything around you is built from particles far too tiny to see
Big Idea: All the stuff around you — water, air, iron, your own body — is made of countless tiny particles called molecules and atoms. These particles are always moving, and there are tiny gaps between them. How they are arranged decides whether something is a solid, a liquid or a gas.
By the end you will be able to:
- explain what matter is and how it differs from a field;
- describe molecules and atoms and how small they are;
- use diffusion as evidence that particles move and have gaps between them;
- compare the molecular structure of solids, liquids and gases;
- predict whether a substance keeps its shape and volume.