Classifying Matter

Classifying Matter
If you were asked to organize the materials shown here into groups, how might you start? You
could separate materials into solids, liquids, and gases. You might group items by their color, or
by their appearance, or by how they are used in life. Chemists classify materials in a variety of
ways, too. Lets investigate a fundamental way of classifying the stuff around us.

Matter
All the stuff around usanything that has mass and takes up spaceis classified as matter. In
the broadest terms, matter can be classified as a pure substance or a mixture. Think for a
minutewhich of the materials above seem to be made of only one kind of matter?
If a material has what we call a fixed composition, it is a pure substance. Roll over the pure
substance label to see which materials have fixed compositions.

Pure Substances
If a pure substance cannot be broken down into simpler substances, that substance is an
element. On the particle level, an element contains only one kind of atom. Though over 90
elements exist, only a few are found as pure elements in nature. Roll over the ELEMENT
textbox to see which of our materials fall into this category.
Other common elements include carbon, iron, and oxygen.
A compound is a pure substance that appears to be a single substance but is actually composed
of two or more elements that are chemically combined in a definite ratio. A compound can be
broken down into its component elements by chemical processes. For example, water is a
compound of hydrogen and oxygen. Passing electricity through water can separate water into
hydrogen and oxygen gases. Roll over the COMPOUND textbox to see which of our materials
are compounds.

Mixtures
Most of the materials we see and use every day do NOT have a fixed composition. Mixtures are
matter that is composed of two or more substances that are only physically combined. Processes,
such as filtering or evaporating, or even just picking out differently sized pieces, can physically
separate the parts of a mixture. Which of the images above appear to be mixtures? Roll over the
MIXTURE label to check your results.
Notice that in each mixture shown, the ratio of components can vary. A tossed salad can have
more or less lettuce, relative to other ingredients, and it will still be a salad! In chemistry, we say
that mixtures have a variable composition. Which of the mixtures shown appear to be a single
material? Roll over the HOMOGENEOUS MIXTURE textbox to confirm your observation.
Homogeneous mixtures, such as air rubbing alcohol, have a uniform composition. Air near the top
of the tank and air near the bottom of the tank have the same distribution of oxygen, nitrogen,
argon and carbon dioxide. In contrast, the salad and the lava lamp are examples of
heterogeneous mixtures. In the lava lamp, the composition is definitely NOT uniform! Some
regions of the lamp have more globs of wax while others have more oil. Roll over the
HETEREOGENEOUS MIXTURES label to see which substances are heterogeneous.

Review What Youve Learned

Take one last look at the eight materials we have classified according to their composition. Drag
each image to its appropriate category in the table. If youre still not quite sure why a material
belongs in a certain category, play the tutorial again to review the definitions. Click the HINT
button if you get stuck.

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