Science 8

Quarter 3 – Module 1
Particulate Nature of Matter

In Grade 7, you recognized that there is a wide variety of materials and these
materials combine in many ways and through different processes. With this diversity of
materials, you learned that chemists came up with several ways of classifying them—
heterogeneous and homogeneous mixtures, elements and compounds, metals and non-
metals, and acids and bases. By engaging in simple scientific investigations, you were
able to recognize some properties of solutions, which are classified as homogeneous
mixtures. You also studied the properties of common elements, compounds, metals and
non-metals, as well as solutions of acids and bases.

Activity 1
Which is matter, which is not?

Materials Needed:
1 teaspoon sugar in plastic cup
½ cup tap water
1 piece stone or small rock
1 piece ball
3 pieces of leaves

Procedure
1. Among the materials needed, which do you think is classified as matter? Put a
check (/) under the appropriate column in Table 1. Explain the reason why do you
aforementioned materials is matter or not in the last column.

Table 1. Identifying which is matter

Sample Is the sample Reason for you answer

matter?

Yes No

Sugar
granules
 Water

Stone

Air
inside
ball

Leaves

Heat

Light

Q1. What similarities do you observe among the first five given samples? Write these
common characteristics.

Q2. Does each sample have a measurable mass? Which among the samples did not
satisfy this question?

Q3. Do you think that each sample occupies space? Write the reason/s for your answer.

Q4. How about smoke? Does it have mass? Does it occupy space? Explain your answer.

Q5. Do you think that heat and light have mass? Do they occupy space? Explain your
answer.
 Based on your observations you have just described some characteristics of
matter. As you were observing each sample of matter in Activity 1 you were focusing on
particular characteristics. These characteristics that describe a sample of matter are called
properties. Matter can have different properties. You measured the mass of each sample
of matter using a balance or a weighing scale. The mass of an object is a measure of the
amount of matter the object has. You observed that the mass of each sample of matter
in Activity 1 is different from the mass of the other samples. You also found out that each
sample of matter occupies space. The measure of the space occupied by an object is
called volume All matter have mass and volume There are other properties of matter
such as hardness, texture color flexibility, malleability and electrical conductivity which
vary from one sample to another

Recall that in Grade 7 you studied other properties of matter .You performed
activities to find out some common properties of solutions. You investigated how fast
sugar and salt dissolve in water. You compared the boiling point of a substance (distilled
water) with that of a mixture (sea water)

Now that you can correctly describe matter based on the properties you have
observed it is important that you know what matter is made of “What makes up matter?”
If you hammer the stone you used in Activity 1 into much smaller pieces, what would you
get? If you turn the sugar into very fine powder what would result? Ice liquid water and
steam are all the same substance, which is water yet you can observe that they look
different from each other? How can this be explained?

Studying about what matter is made of involves dealing with very small particles
beyond what your eyes can see. In fact, the ancient Greek philosophers proposed ideas
about what matter was made of Almost 2,500 years ago, Leucippus and his disciple
Democritus believed that nature consisted of two things, "atoms and the void that
surrounds them" (Knieram, 1995-2013) They believed that "atoms are physically but not
geometrically, indivisible." For Democritus, atoms are indestructible and completely full,
so there is no empty space Both Leucippus and Democritus had the idea that there are
many different kinds of atoms and each of them had specific shape and size and that all
atoms move randomly around in space. However they did not give an explanation for the
motion of atoms (Knieram, 1995-2013)

Democritus believed that any piece of matter can be divided and subdivided into
very small particles but that this process ended at some point when a piece is reached
that could not be further divided He called this particle, atomos, a Greek word which
means indivisible particle. Democritus' ideas about the atom were later challenged by
other Greek philosophers, most strongly by Aristotle.
 The idea of the atom was not further explored until a little over two centuries ago
when John Dalton presented concrete evidence that all matter is made of very small
particles called atoms. An atom is the smallest particle of an element that has all the
properties of the element. Today, we know that although atoms are very small, they are
not indivisible as Democritus thought, rather they consist of still smaller particles,
Democritus was right in one aspect of his belief, that is, atoms are the smallest particles
of which substances are made. In Grade 7, you learned about elements Atoms of most
elements have the ability to combine with other atoms. Different elements have different
properties because the combining atoms are different and the way the atoms are joined
together are different.

A molecule is a particle consisting of two or more atoms combined together in a

specific arrangement. It is an electrically neutral particle. It is the smallest particle of an
element or compound that can exist independently. For example, a molecule of water
consists of an oxygen atom combined with two hydrogen atoms. Atoms of the same
element can also combine to form a molecule. For example, oxygen in the air consist of
oxygen molecules which are made up of two oxygen atoms.

Atoms are too small to observe These particles cannot be seen under high powered
light microscopes used in school laboratories The size of an atom Is measured in
angstroms One angstrom is a unit of length equal to one ten millionth of a millimeter.

When you mixed sugar

and water and tasted the
resulting solution, it tasted
sweet because sugar is still
present though you cannot see
the sugar anymore. The volume
of the mixture is less than the
sum of the volumes of the
unmixed sugar and water. Why
is this so? The water is made of
tiny particles, molecules, with
spaces between them Sugar is
also made up of molecules
bigger than the molecules of
water. The water molecules
could fit in the spaces between the sugar molecules or vice versa. A good analogy to
consider related to matter being composed of tiny particles is the pointillist style of
painting. The images in a pointillist painting appear continuous but if one looks closely,
the images are actually made of small dots. Pointillism is a method of painting using dots
to come up with various affects. The dots are placed singly, in rows, or randomly. These
dots can also be i groups or they can be overlapping. They can be either uniform or varied
in size in the same painting. Matter is similarly assembled, with atoms of different
elements combining in various ways to give a tremendous variety of substances.

In Figure 1(a), the image of Dolores F. Hernandez, founding Director of the Science
Education Center, now University of the Philippines National Institute for Science and
Mathematics Education Development was done through pointillist painting. The image
appears continuous In Figure 1(b), a portion of the painting (boxed in Figure 1a) is blown
up to show that the continuous image actually consists of dots. The lightness and
darkness of the pigments give volume to the image in order to show smoothness.
Similarly, matter, which appears to be continuous like the image in Figure 1(a) is made
up of very small particles that cannot be seen with the unaided eye.

If you have a syringe and press your thumb on the tip of the plunger, you will
observed that if you slightly push the plunger of the syringe, you can feel the springiness
of the air inside the syringe which gives a hint about the distance between the particles
of air. In other words, air, being a gas, can be compressed because there are large spaces
between the particles so the particles can be made to come closer to each other.
However, you cannot able to push the plunger of the syringe with water in it. You felt the
resistance of the water to being compressed. The plunger could not be pushed because
water is not as compressible as air. The particles of liquid water are closer to each other
and it is difficult to push them even closer to each other.

From the idea that matter is made up of particles and the situations that you
observed, you can draw how you “see” and understand matter beyond what can you
observe with your unaided eyes. You were creating your own mental picture and
constructing models, which are drawings or diagrams that are representations of what is
happening at a level beyond what your eyes can see. This is what science educators call
the sub-microscopic model of representing an idea or concept, which you cannot observe
with your senses or even aided by a simple microscope. From your discussions, you may
have also thought of ways to make your models more consistent with the evidence you
observed.

The particle model of matter shows that in gases, the particles move at random
directions very quickly and travel in straight-line paths. In the process, they collide with
one another and with the walls of the container. They change direction only when they
rebound from the collisions. The distance between particles is large compared to the size
of the particles. The attraction between particles is negligible because of the large
distance between them. This explains why a gas spreads. Its particles fill all the available
space in the container.

Gases take the shape of the container because the

particles are able to move freely to all parts of the
container. They move freely because they are far apart
and there is negligible attraction between them. This
model also explains the compressibility of gases. The
distances between particles are large and so there is room
for the particles to move closer to each other.

In liquids, the particles are closer to one another, nudging

one another as they move. Since the particles are closer
to one another, the attraction between particles is stronger than those in gases. The
particles move and change positions but not as freely as those in a gas.

Liquids can flow out of a container and can be

poured into another while maintaining their
volume. This happens because there are
attractions among the particles of liquid which hold
them together although not in fixed positions.
These attractions also make it possible for liquids to
have a definite volume. This is one major
difference between liquids and gases, the particles are
attracted to one another more strongly than the particles of gases are. When you poured
water and rock salt in separate containers, you observed that a liquid, such as water
flows and it spreads out and takes the shape of the container.
 Solids have definite shapes and volume because the
particles are packed closely together in fixed positions.
They vibrate a little but in these fixed positions. The
particles cannot move around. The particles of solids are
held together' by strong forces. One common characteristic
of both solids and liquids is that the particles are in contact
with their neighbors, that is, with other particles. Thus they
are incompressible and this commonality between solids
and liquids distinguishes them from gases. There are other
properties that you will learn in Grades 9 to 12 that will be useful for distinguishing among
the states of matter. In general, the three states of matter differ because of the
arrangement and motion of the particles in each state.

So far, based on Activities 1 and this module’s explanation, you learned that matter
is anything that has mass and volume and you now have a better "picture" or view of
how the particles are arranged in the three states of matter solid, liquid, and gas;

 Matter is made up of tiny particles

 Particles of matter are moving all the time

 These particles have spaces between them

 The particles of matter attract each other

ACTIVITY 2:
COMPARING THE THREE STATES OF MATTER
Using the particulate given below, compare the three states of matter in terms of
the following:
1. arrangement of the particles

2. forces between them

3. motion of the particles

Activity 3– Comparison of the Three States of Matter

This table summarizes the topic about the particulate theory of matter. You are tasked
to complete the table below.

Property Solid Liquid Gas

Compared

Arrangement
of Particles

(Draw and
explain)

Forces strong
acting
between
particles

Movement of Slide past each other

Particles randomly; fluid

Energy of low
Particles