Question

Explain the meaning of the term matter with special reference to the term ‘substance’.

Answer 1

Hint: Whatever surrounds us is made up of matter. Notebook, pen, water, gas, milk, food, and laptop everything is made up of matter. Everything you can touch or feel is made up of matter.

Complete Step by step solution:
Matter is any substance that occupies mass and space or has a volume. Whatever we can touch is made up of matter, matter is composed of atoms and anything that is made from them. Matter exists in various states which are broadly classified under solid, liquid and gas. Solid is made up of substances that have a fixed shape because they are closely packed and particles cannot move freely because of which solids are stable, have definite shape and definite volume. Liquids are those which do not have a fixed shape, they take the shape of the container and are loosely packed, they have weak interaction between its atoms. The volume of liquid is definite when temperature and pressure are kept constant. Gases are those whose atoms have negligible force of interactions and are free to move, these are compressible in nature. All these forms of matter are interconvertible for example if we take ${H_2}O$, the solid form of ${H_2}O$ is ice, liquid form is water and in a gaseous state we can have water vapor. These changes can be done by changing the temperature and pressure conditions.

Note: it should be noted that anything that does not have mass is not considered as matter for example light and photons are not considered as matter. There is one more form of state but they are not stable at normal conditions which are plasma and Bose-Einstein condensate.