Matter and Its Properties Review Sheet
Water Cycle: the continuous process by which water is used and re-used on earth; responsible for weather and climate. Energy from the sun drives the water cycle. Without the sun’s energy to warm it, all the water in the oceans (97% of all water) would be trapped on Earth’s surface.
There are 4 main steps in the water cycle:
Step #1: Evaporation: when a liquid (water) is changed to a gas (water vapor) because it has been heated by the sun.
Plants are part of this step. They pull water up through their roots into their leaves and stems. They also release some water vapor into the air through tiny openings in their leaves. This is called transpiration.
Step #2: Condensation: when a gas (water vapor) rises into the air it cools and changes to a liquid (water droplets.This process forms clouds. Sometimes water vapor condenses directly onto a surface such as grass or a window. The condensed drops of water are called dew.
Step #3: Precipitation: Droplets of liquid water in clouds combine to form bigger drops. When the drops become heavy enough, they fall back to Earth as precipitation. Precipitation is water that falls from the atmosphere as rain, sleet, snow, or ice. Snow, hail and sleet are forms of solid, or frozen, water
Step #4: Water falls into the oceans and onto land. Some water soaks into the soil and collects as underground water, called groundwater. Gravity pulls some water downhill to flow over the land surface. This water is called runoff.
Terms to Know:
- Matter: anything that has mass and takes up space.
- Mass: the amount of matter that makes up an object. It never changes.
- Weight:It is the measure of the pull of gravity. You can use a spring scale to measure it in either newtons, grams or pounds.
- The weight of an object is equal to the weight of all its parts together. If you mix two substances together, like milk and chocolate powder, the mixture will be equal in weight to the weight of each of the parts together.
- Physical property: a feature that you can observe with your senses (color, smell, texture) or measure with a tool (weight, length, height, temperature).
- There are 3 states of matter, solid, liquid, and gas. Think of water and the water cycle. The water is changing between these 3 states.
- A physical change is a change in which no new materials form. Size and shape are physical changes. Most physical changes can be undone. Changing states of matter is a physical change. Making a mixture is also a physical change.
- A chemical change is a change in which one or more new types of matter form. In a chemical change, materials react with each other. The ability of a material to react with other materials in a certain way is a chemical property. Chemical changes cannot be reversed. Examples of chemical changes are burning and rusting. If there is a change of color ora temperature change you can suspect a chemical change has occurred.
- Qualitative data: pieces of information that can be described in words and are gathered by using your senses and not tools such as color, texture, and smell.
- Quantitative data: pieces of information gathered by using a tool such as a scale or thermometer. (weight, temperature, height)