Describing Matter

Everything around you is made of matter. To tell one piece of matter apart from another, scientists look for properties. A property is a characteristic of an object that we can observe using our five senses.

We use our eyes to see color and shape. We use our hands to feel texture (how something feels) and flexibility (how much it bends). For example, a fire truck is red (color), hard (texture), and stiff (flexibility). By using these 'clues,' we can describe anything in the world!

When you touch an object, you are feeling its texture. Some objects feel rough, like a piece of sandpaper or a tree trunk. Others feel smooth, like a glass window or a plastic slide.

Another important property is flexibility. This tells us if an object can bend without breaking. A rubber band has high flexibility because it can stretch and bend easily. A metal spoon has low flexibility because it is very stiff and hard to bend. If you had $2$ objects, one might be bendy and the other might be rigid!

Solid matter comes in many different shapes. You might see a sphere (like a marble), a cube (like a dice), or a cylinder (like a glue stick).

When we compare objects, we look at two things at once to see how they are different. We might say a rock is heavier than a feather, or a lemon is bumpier than an apple. Scientists often use measurements to compare, like saying one book is $20$ centimeters long while another is only $10$ centimeters long.