The Chem Wizard

Chemistry is the study of matter and the relationships between the different kinds of matter, and matter is what everything in the Universe is made of (there are some exceptions, but let's just stay with this statement).

 

There are many different kinds of matter that make the Universe. Matter is like the building blocks or pixels of the Universe.

 

Imagine lego blocks of a lego building - matter is like the lego blocks. Matter is not one of these blocks, the whole collection of matter is referred to in the singular because it is impossible to count all of them. For example: 

 

How much matter is on the earth?

 

The number of matter is uncalculable, it is not possible to count the number of matter that made up the earth, or an eraser, or a speck of dust. The number of matter on these things would be too many to count!

 

So the simplest unit of matter that scientists measure is the atom. An atom is also made of matter. And a speck of dust, an eraser and the earth are also made of atoms. 

 

What is an Atom?

 

An atom is a like a building block of the universe (like a large lego block made of smaller lego blocks), and there many different kinds of atoms (cubic lego block, rectangular lego block, etc.) and each of these kinds are called the elements. And there are 116 known elements in the Universe. 

 

Scientists have organized the elements into categories on the periodic table like the one below.

 

More about the periodic table and elements>>