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As we look at our surroundings, we see a largevariety of things with different shapes, sizesand textures. Everything in this universe ismade up of material which scientists havenamed “matter”. The air we breathe, the foodwe eat, stones, clouds, stars, plants andanimals, even a small drop of water or aparticle of sand — every thing is matter. Wecan also see as we look around that all thethings mentioned above occupy space andhave mass. In other words, they have bothmass* and volume**.Since early times, human beings havebeen trying to understand their surroundings.Early Indian philosophers classified matter inthe form of five basic elements — the “PanchTatva” — air, earth, fire, sky and water.According to them everything, living or nonliving, was made up of these five basicelements. Ancient Greek philosophers hadarrived at a similar classification of matter.Modern day scientists have evolved twotypes of classification of matter based on theirphysical properties and chemical nature.In this chapter we shall learn aboutmatter based on its physical properties.Chemical aspects of matter will be taken upin subsequent chapters