Q1.
How are they similar to or different from each other? What are their shapes and colours? How does it feel when you touch them? Are some of them heavier than others?
Answer
Madam Vidya is not asking for one answer — she is teaching you the four questions a scientist asks about any object. Take the things on your own desk and answer them one by one.
| Her question | What you look at | Example from the classroom |
|---|---|---|
| Similar or different? | The material each thing is made of | A notebook and a newspaper are similar — both are paper. A notebook and a steel tumbler are different. |
| Shape and colour? | The outline you see and the colour of the surface | Tumbler — cylindrical, silvery. Notebook — rectangular, orange. Chalk — cylindrical, white. |
| How does it feel? | Smooth or rough, hard or soft, cold or warm | Steel tumbler — smooth, hard, cool. Sweater — rough, soft, warm. Glass marble — smooth and hard. |
| Heavier than others? | Mass — lift two things of the same size, one in each hand | An iron key is much heavier than a plastic sharpener of the same size. |
Why she asks all four: every one of her questions is really about a property — appearance, shape, texture, mass. All things around us are made up of some material — paper, wood, cloth, glass, metal, plastic, clay — and it is the properties of that material that make two objects look and feel alike or different. The whole chapter grows out of these four questions.
Try This: Put a steel spoon and a plastic spoon in your two hands with your eyes shut. Without looking you can still tell which is which — from the weight, the coolness and the smoothness. Your hands are already measuring properties.