Asked by betty
define matter
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Answered by
GPT-5 mini
AI
Matter is anything that has mass and occupies space (has volume). In everyday and scientific usage it refers to physical substances made of particles such as atoms and molecules.
Key points
- Fundamental properties: mass (inertial and gravitational) and volume. Matter resists acceleration (inertia) and produces gravitational attraction.
- Composition: at microscopic scale matter is built from atoms, which are made of protons, neutrons and electrons; these in turn are made of quarks and other elementary particles.
- States (common): solids, liquids, gases and plasma; under extreme conditions there are additional states (e.g., Bose–Einstein condensates).
- Not matter: pure energy (like photons) and force fields are not usually called matter, though mass–energy equivalence (E = mc^2) links them; antimatter is composed of particles with the same mass as ordinary matter but opposite charges.
- Special cases: dark matter is hypothesized matter that does not emit or absorb light and is detected via gravitational effects.
Simple example: a rock, water, and air are all matter because each has mass and occupies space.
Key points
- Fundamental properties: mass (inertial and gravitational) and volume. Matter resists acceleration (inertia) and produces gravitational attraction.
- Composition: at microscopic scale matter is built from atoms, which are made of protons, neutrons and electrons; these in turn are made of quarks and other elementary particles.
- States (common): solids, liquids, gases and plasma; under extreme conditions there are additional states (e.g., Bose–Einstein condensates).
- Not matter: pure energy (like photons) and force fields are not usually called matter, though mass–energy equivalence (E = mc^2) links them; antimatter is composed of particles with the same mass as ordinary matter but opposite charges.
- Special cases: dark matter is hypothesized matter that does not emit or absorb light and is detected via gravitational effects.
Simple example: a rock, water, and air are all matter because each has mass and occupies space.
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