<<The series of articles is going to be about the universe, and the what it is made up of and how old it is. It will also talk about things such as black holes and stars.
Many people have never had a chance to look at the universe as a whole entity before. They believe their world only exists within themselves, inside their homes, or on their laptop screen. However, if you are willing to open your eyes for long enough you will realize that we live in an extremely vast place surrounded by trillions of other galaxies just like our own with billions of suns shining light upon them all day long.>>
Matter is all of the substance that makes up our everyday world. It is the opposite of nothing, and everything that you can see, touch, hear, smell or taste are different forms of matter.
In order for an object to become matter it needs to be in motion - either in a state of constant motion ('kinetic energy'), or changing state ('potential energy'). When an object's kinetic energy changes into potential energy we call this 'deformation'. This happens when something such as a rock is pushed down a mountain and its potential energy increases as it moves downwards; at the same time it converts some kinetic energy into heat. This is the principle that makes a pump work. The pump (a kinetic object) is pushed down by the water (a potential object). This movement forces more water up into pipes and out of the house. When the pump is changed to a downwards motion, it stops pushing up water but continues to push down due to gravity. The energy that was used to push the kinetic object up is now being used for potential energy.
Deformation is also how ice cubes are made in a refrigerator. It takes more energy to change ice into water than it does for liquid water into steam (water vapour). That's why ice cubes melt (their energy is used up). Water is never really fully formed from ice as a substance. Even after removing all the ice the water is still not totally solid crystals. It will always have some kind of a liquid form. Deformation also explains how many plants grow taller than they were before by using more of what was originally potential energy.
Other examples of changes in matter are as follows: when something that is cold becomes warm, or hot, it becomes less dense and has more potential energy. Or, when something is dried out it has less potential energy and so becomes more dense.
A substance may also become matter by gaining mass by containing other substances. In this way any element in the periodic table of elements can become matter.
Matter may change its form to become something else. This happens most easily with gases, liquids and solids, which are made of atoms. They do this because their atomic nuclei are close enough to one another that they pull together like magnets, in a process called 'gravitation'.
Atomic nuclei are so tiny that the force of gravity between them is too small to be felt. The result of this attraction is that all objects on earth have a downward force, called 'weight'. This weight makes everything fall towards the centre of the earth, which means that every object - solid, liquid or gas - has its own natural level. This natural level depends on the kind of material it is made from. A block of iron will 'float' lower than water, and a feather will float higher than water because all these materials are made of atoms with different weights.
Scientists can tell the difference between different elements by looking at their atomic structures. Their atoms have different weights that make them fit together in certain ways. When scientists 'split' an element apart, they can see the pattern of bonds between its atoms. This is how we know that hydrogen, oxygen and carbon all contain one electron each and are therefore strongly similar to each other (like a family).
Understanding matter is important because it helps us understand everything in the world around us, even if it doesn't seem to be made of any particular type of matter. For example, Earth's atmosphere has many different gases mixed together under very low pressure. These molecules stick together when they are melted by sunlight or other sources of heat energy, so they turn into clouds that we see as rain or snow.
Understanding matter is also important because it helps us to make new technology, such as the computers we use today. Information is stored on a silicon chip in the computer just like information is stored on a silicon chip in a mobile phone. Understanding how this works is based on our understanding of matter and what things are made of.
Scientists have found that everything in the universe is made up of only about 100 different kinds of nuclei. These are called 'elements', which can be changed into other elements by changing their nuclei, giving them more or fewer electrons and protons. This process is called 'radioactive decay'. It's the reason why some rocks, like uranium, are radioactive.
Scientists have named all of these elements from number 1 to number 100. They've also found out how they change into each other by understanding how their nuclei behave. Because of this we know that everything in the universe can be changed into everything else with a nuclear explosion. This is because we understand matter and its behaviour enough to transform it from one thing into another thing. In doing this we can find out many things about our universe and how it works; for example, we can learn how to make medicines or weaponry from finding out more about what's in our world.