Materials Around Us Class 6 Notes

Our surroundings are composed of various materials. All the things we use in day-to-day life, in the form of chairs, clothes and utensils, are made out of materials with special properties, be it glass, plastic and metals. The knowledge of the physical characteristics of such materials would make us realise how they are used and how they are significant in our everyday lives.

Physics Chapter, Materials Around Us, defines such important terms as hardness, solubility, transparency and lustre. Through learning these properties, students are able to recognise and categorise materials in an effective way and know how these materials may be chosen to different practical uses they see around them.

Properties of Common Materials

It is possible to understand materials around us by analysing the main physical characteristics of the material:

• Hardness and Strength: Furniture is made of hard materials such as wood, iron and cement because they provide weight support and durability.
• Transparency: transparent materials, such as glass, are transparent to allow light to pass through them, and frosted glass is translucent and wood is opaque.
• Lustre: There are those materials that are lustrous or shiny, so as to reflect light (like metals).
• Solubility: Materials that are soluble in water, such as salt or sugar, do not dissolve in solvents such as oil and sand.
• Flexibility: Rubber and clay are able to alter their shape with eas,e whereas iron or glass do not.

Choosing the Right Material for Objects

The effectiveness of any item is determined by the aptness of the materials around us to be used to construct it. For example:

• Chairs: These chairs are made of wood, plastic, or iron, based on the requirement of comfort, lightness, or stability.

• Containers: Containers that are used to store waste should suit the type of waste. Food waste should be placed in covered metal containers, broken glass in durable bins, and paper in light recyclable containers.

Identifying Soluble and Insoluble Substances

Substances may be matched with their behaviour in water:

• Some of the soluble pairs are vinegar and water or sugar and water.
• Pairs that are not soluble are oil and water or flour and water.
• This will inform the students about mixtures and solutions, which will form the foundation of higher concepts of chemistry.