Materials Engineering and Exploring Properties

Materials Engineering and Exploring Properties — page 3
MATTER AND MATERIALS All of the materials we make use of and in fact everything around us is made of matter The air we breathe the food we eat the clothes we wear the ground we walk on and we ourselves are all made of matter Matter is made up of tiny particles called atoms There are 94 different kinds of atom that exist in nature and more have been created in the laboratory A substance that is made up of just one kind of atom is called an element Learning about chemistry is an important part of a materials engineer’s training 6 Molecules and compounds Elements can join together in different ways to form larger particles called molecules A molecule made of two or more different elements is called a compound Most of the materials we come across in everyday life are made up of compounds The elements can be combined to make an immense variety of compounds each with different properties and uses Compounds are formed by chemical reactions Newly formed compounds can have quite different properties from the original chemicals that reacted together The chemical properties of a material tell you how it will behave when you do different things to it They also tell you how it will react with other elements or compounds and what new materials can be made from it All of this is important knowledge for the materials engineer