Primary 6 · Science · Cycles: Matter
Cycles: Matter questions for Primary 6 Science
9 questions to work through online, 2 of them written out the way the paper asks. Answer and you get the working straight away, then a score at the end. No sign-up, and you can retake it as often as you like.
- Volume by displacement
- Conservation of mass
- Properties of the states
- Measuring an irregular solid
- Reasoning about dissolving
- Measuring mass and volume
- Naming the method
- Naming a quantity
- Applying the ideas
| State | Fixed shape | Fixed volume | Easily compressed |
|---|---|---|---|
| solid | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ |
| liquid | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ |
| gas | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
Answers and explanations for all 9 questions
Every answer with the reasoning behind it. Worth reading after you have tried the set — or on its own, if you are a parent marking it.
Based on the set-ups above, what is the volume of one marble?
Answer: 8 ml
The three marbles raised the level by 104 − 80 = 24 ml, so each identical marble is 24 ÷ 3 = 8 ml.
Which of these leave the total mass of a sealed container unchanged?
Answer: A, B, C and D
Nothing can leave a sealed container. Dissolving, melting, evaporating and compressing all rearrange matter without creating or destroying any.
Based on the table above, why can a large amount of gas be stored in a small cylinder?
Answer: A gas has no fixed volume and is easily compressed.
The gas row is the only one with a cross for fixed volume and a tick for compressible. That combination is exactly what lets it be squeezed into a cylinder.
Why can a ruler not be used to find the volume of an irregular stone?
Answer: It has no regular edges or faces to measure.
Length times width times height works only for a regular shape. An irregular stone has no such dimensions, so displacement is used instead.
A sealed flask holds 100 g of water and 5 g of salt. After stirring until the salt disappears from view, what is the total mass?
Answer: 105 g
Dissolving spreads the salt too finely to see but removes none of it. 100 g of water plus 5 g of salt is still 105 g.
Which two pieces of equipment are needed to find the volume of an irregular object?
Answer: A and B only
Displacement needs only a measuring cylinder and water: the rise in level is the object's volume.
An irregular object is lowered into water and its volume is found from how far the water level rises. What is this method called? The ______ method.
Answer: displacement
Finding volume from the rise in water level is the displacement method.
This quantity is the amount of matter in an object, measured in grams, and it stays the same wherever the object is taken. What is it?
Answer: mass
The amount of matter in an object is its mass.
A sealed bottle of fizzy drink is shaken and gas collects at the top. What has happened to the total mass?
Answer: It is unchanged, because nothing has left the sealed bottle.
The gas was dissolved in the drink and is now above it, but it never left the bottle. Rearranging matter inside a sealed container leaves the mass exactly as it was.