What is the meaning of Material?


Material is any substance or mixture of substances that occupy space, has a volume and has a mass. We need to group materials for our convenience and to study their properties. These properties are:

• Appearance

• Solubility

• Hardness

• Float/sink

• Transparent/opaque


Below are some properties of materials

• Appearance:  The look, feel, texture in addition to lustre, colour and quality defines the property of appearance of the material.


• Soluble/Insoluble: The nature of the material to completely dissolve in water is termed as soluble material.

Eg: Lemon juice, Sugar and Salt.


• Materials that don’t completely dissolve in water, they form a thin film over the surface.

Eg: Oil, Kerosene and Sawdust.


• Hardness: materials that can be compressed easily are called soft. while the materials that cant be compressed easily are called hard. 

Eg: the key is hard, cotton is soft.


• Float/Sink: the weight of the material helps to define this property. If the material is lightweight, it will float over the surface, therefore, are called floating material.

Eg:  Sawdust, Oil, Plastic and Wood.

The material is heavyweight and it will sink in water. 

Eg: Stone and Metals


• Transparency/Opaque: The amount of light material allowed passing through a material is the transparency of the material. The maximum amount of light to pass through the material, therefore, they are transparent materials.

Eg: Plastic, Air, and Glass.


Translucent materials are, which only allow light to pass through them partially.

Eg: Oiled paper, Coloured syrup, and some sheer materials. 


• An opaque object is the materials, which don’t allow any light to pass through them. 

Eg: Wood, Cardboard, and Metals.

Tutorialspoint
Tutorialspoint

Simply Easy Learning

Updated on: 10-Oct-2022

69 Views

Kickstart Your Career

Get certified by completing the course

Get Started
Advertisements