Materials are made of tiny particles — Chemistry, 4–6 years
Things can look whole and still be made from pieces far too small for our eyes to see. Chemistry, 4–6 years.
Tiny building pieces
A drop of water looks smooth, but it is made from an enormous number of tiny particles. They are too small to see one by one, yet together they make the water, the spoon and your hand feel real.
Why imagine what we cannot see?
This idea helps explain how a smell can spread, how sugar can vanish in water and how a solid can become a liquid. People needed it because looking only at the outside did not explain these changes.
A scent crossing a room
1. Open a scented soap in one corner. 2. After a while, someone across the room can smell it. 3. Tiny scent particles have moved through the air to the nose; the soap itself has not travelled there.
Not tiny grains
It is reasonable to picture particles as tiny grains, because grains are the smallest pieces we can see. But a particle of water is far smaller than a grain of sand and cannot be picked up or counted by eye.
Invisible helpers
This picture is useful when cooks stir, when a perfume spreads and when medicines mix into a drink. It reminds us that a material can still be present even when our eyes no longer pick out its tiny pieces.
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