Primary 4 · Science · Cycles: Matter
Cycles: Matter questions for Primary 4 Science
10 questions to work through online, 2 of them written out the way the paper asks. Answer and you get the working straight away, then a score at the end. No sign-up, and you can retake it as often as you like.
- Defining matter
- Shape and volume
- Showing that air has mass
- Showing that air takes up space
- Identifying states
- Volume of a gas
- Sorting by state
- Naming a state
- Naming what matter has
- Applying the definition
| State | Has its own shape | Has its own volume |
|---|---|---|
| solid | ✓ | ✓ |
| liquid | ✗ | ✓ |
| gas | ✗ | ✗ |
Answers and explanations for all 10 questions
Every answer with the reasoning behind it. Worth reading after you have tried the set — or on its own, if you are a parent marking it.
What do all three states of matter have in common?
Answer: They all have mass and take up space.
Matter is anything that has mass and takes up space. That is true of solids, liquids and gases alike, however differently they behave.
Based on the table above, which statement is correct?
Answer: A liquid keeps its volume but takes the shape of its container.
Pouring 200 ml of water into a different jug gives a different shape but still 200 ml, which is exactly what the liquid row of the table says.
Set-up B was found to be slightly heavier than set-up A. What does this show?
Answer: Air has mass.
The only difference between the two set-ups is the air inside, so the extra mass must be the air's. That is one of the two things that make air matter.
Which two of these show that air takes up space?
Answer: A and B only
The upturned glass stays dry because the air inside leaves no room for the water, and the balloon grows because the air needs somewhere to be. Both show air taking up space.
Which of these is a gas at room temperature?
Answer: the steam trail above a boiling kettle, once it has become invisible
Water vapour is a gas and is invisible. The white cloud people call steam is really tiny liquid droplets that have already cooled.
A sealed syringe holds air. When the plunger is pushed in, what happens to the air?
Answer: It is squashed into a smaller space but there is still the same amount of air.
Gases can be squashed into a smaller space. The amount of air does not change — it just fills a smaller volume.
Which two of these take the shape of whatever container they are put in?
Answer: A and C only
Liquids and gases both take the shape of the container. Milk is a liquid and oxygen is a gas; the block and the marble are solids and keep their shapes.
This state of matter has no shape of its own and no volume of its own — it spreads out to fill whatever it is in. Which state is it?
Answer: gas
The state with neither its own shape nor its own volume is a gas.
Anything that is matter has two things in common: it takes up space, and it has ______ .
Answer: mass
Everything that is matter takes up space and has mass.
Ben said 'light is a kind of matter because we can see it'. Why is he wrong?
Answer: Light has no mass and takes up no space.
Being visible has nothing to do with it. Matter has mass and takes up space, and light has neither, so light is not matter.