Matter
Anything which occupies space and has weight is called matter. E.g. soil, water, wood, iron, gold, plastic etc. Matter exist in three states – solid, liquid and gas.
Element
An element is a substance which cannot be split into two or more other substances by ordinary chemical reactions. Thus an element contains only one kind of matter. Some common elements are
Metals – iron, zinc, copper, silver, mercury
Non-metals – oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, carbon, chlorine.
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