MATTER: ORIGIN, PROPERTIES, STATES AND EXAMPLES - SCIENCE - 2025

The matter is that which has mass, occupies a place in space and is able to interact gravitationally. The entire universe is made up of matter, having its origin just after the Big Bang.

Matter is present in four states: solid, liquid, gas, and plasma. The latter has many similarities with gas but, having unique characteristics, make it the fourth form of aggregation.

Matter is made up of atoms. Atoms are made up of neutrons, protons, and electrons

The properties of matter are divided into two categories: general and characteristics. Generals allow one to distinguish matter from what is not. For example, mass is a characteristic of matter, as well as electric charge, volume, and temperature. These properties are common for any substance.

In turn, the characteristics are the particular properties by which one type of matter is distinguished from another. This category includes density, color, hardness, viscosity, conductivity, melting point, modulus of compressibility, and many more.

What is matter made of?

Atoms are the building blocks of matter. In turn, atoms are made up of protons, electrons, and neutrons.

Electric charge

Electric charge is an intrinsic characteristic of the particles that make up matter. Protons have a positive charge and electrons negatively charge, neutrons lack an electrical charge.

In the atom, protons and electrons are found in equal amounts, therefore the atom - and matter in general - is usually in a neutral state.

Illustration representing an atom. Protons and neutrons are in the same number in the nucleus. Electrons are at different orbital levels around the nucleus

Origin of matter

The origin of matter is in the initial moments of the formation of the universe, a stage in which light elements such as helium, lithium and deuterium (an isotope of hydrogen) began to form.

NASA / WMAP Science Team / Art by Dana Berry

This phase is known as Big Bang nucleosynthesis, the process of generation of atomic nuclei from their constituents: protons and neutrons. Brief moments after the Big Bang, the universe cooled down and protons and neutrons joined to form atomic nuclei.

Star formation and origin of elements

Later, when the stars were formed, their nuclei were synthesizing the heaviest elements through nuclear fusion processes. This is how ordinary matter originated, from which all known objects in the universe are formed, including living beings.

However, scientists today believe that the universe is not made up entirely of ordinary matter. The existing density of this matter does not explain many of the cosmological observations, such as the expansion of the universe and the speed of stars in galaxies.

Stars move faster than predicted by the density of ordinary matter, which is why the existence of a non-visible matter that is responsible is postulated. It's about dark matter.

The existence of a third class of matter is also postulated, associated with what is known as dark energy. Remember that matter and energy are equivalent, according to what Einstein pointed out.

What we will describe next refers exclusively to the ordinary matter of which we are made, which has mass and other general characteristics and many very specific ones, depending on the type of matter.

Properties of matter

- General properties

The general properties of matter are common to all of it. For example, a piece of wood and a piece of metal have mass, occupy a volume and are at a certain temperature.

Mass, weight and inertia

Mass and weight are terms that are often confused. However, there is a fundamental difference between them: the mass of a body is the same - unless it experiences a loss - but the weight of that same object can change. We know that the weight on the Earth and on the Moon is not the same, since the Earth's gravity is greater.

Therefore, mass is a scalar quantity, while weight is vector. This means that the weight of an object has magnitude, direction and meaning, because it is the force with which the Earth - or the Moon or another astronomical object - pulls the object towards its center. Here the direction and sense are "towards the center", while the magnitude corresponds to the numerical part.

To express the mass, a number and a unit are enough. For example, they speak of a kilo of corn, or a ton of steel. In the International System of Units (SI) the unit for mass is the kilogram.

Another thing we know for sure, from everyday experience, is that it is more difficult to move very massive objects than lighter ones. The latter find it easier to change movements. It is a property of matter called inertia, which is measured through mass.

Volume

Matter occupies a certain amount of space, which is not occupied by some other matter. This is therefore impenetrable, which means that it offers resistance to other matter occupying the same place.

For example, when soaking a sponge, the liquid is located in the pores of the sponge, without occupying the same place as it. The same is true for fractured, porous rocks that contain oil.

Temperature

Atoms are organized into molecules to give matter structure, but once achieved, these particles are not in static equilibrium. On the contrary, they have a characteristic vibratory movement, which depends among other things on their disposition.

This movement is associated with the internal energy of matter, which is measured through temperature.

- Characteristic properties

They are numerous and their study contributes to characterizing the different interactions that matter is capable of establishing. One of the most important is density: a kilo of iron and another of wood weigh the same, but the kilo of iron occupies less volume than the kilo of wood.

Density is the ratio of mass to volume it occupies. Each material has a density that is characteristic of it, although it is not invariable, since temperature and pressure can exert important modifications.

Another very particular property is elasticity. Not all materials have the same behavior when stretched or compressed. Some are very resistant, others are easily deformable.

In this way we have numerous properties of matter that characterize its behavior in countless situations.

States of the material

Water in liquid, solid and gaseous state.

Matter appears to us in states of aggregation, depending on the cohesive force between the particles that compose it. In this way, there are four states that occur naturally:

-Solid

-Liquids

-Gas

-Plasma

Solid

Solid state matter has a very well defined shape, since the constituent particles are highly cohesive. It also has a good elastic response, since when it is deformed, the solid state matter tends to return to its original state.

Liquids

Liquids take the shape of the container that contains them, but even so, they have a well-defined volume, since the molecular bonds, although more flexible than in solids, still provide sufficient cohesion.

Gases

Matter in the gaseous state is characterized in that its constituent particles are not tightly bound. In fact, they have great mobility, and that is why gases lack shape and expand until they fill the volume of the container that contains them.

The three best known states of matter. Josell7

Plasma

Plasma is matter in a gaseous state and also ionized. It was already mentioned previously that, in general, matter is in a neutral state, but in the case of plasma, one or more electrons have separated from the atom and left it with a net charge.

Although plasma is the least familiar of the states of matter, the truth is that it abounds in the universe. For example, plasma exists in the Earth's outer atmosphere, as well as in the Sun and other stars.

In the laboratory, it is possible to create plasma by heating a gas until the electrons separate from the atoms, or by bombarding the gas with high-energy radiation.

Examples of matter

Common objects

Any common object is made of matter, like:

• Book
• A chair
• A table
• Timber
• Glass.

Elemental matter

In elemental matter we find the elements that make up the periodic table of elements, which are the most elemental part of matter. All the objects that make up matter can be broken down into these small elements.

• Aluminum
• Barium
• Argon
• Boron
• Calcium
• Gallium
• Indian.

Organic material

It is the matter created by living organisms and based on the chemistry of carbon, a light element that can easily form covalent bonds. Organic compounds are long chains of molecules with great versatility and life uses them to carry out its functions.

Antimatter

It is a type of matter in which electrons are positively charged (positrons) and protons (antiprotons) are negatively charged. Neutrons, although neutral in charge, also have their antiparticle called anti-neutron, made of antiquarks.

Antimatter particles have the same mass as matter particles and occur in nature. Positrons have been detected in cosmic rays, the radiation that comes from outer space, since 1932. And antiparticles of all kinds have been produced in laboratories, through the use of nuclear accelerators.

An artificial anti-atom was even created, composed of a positron orbiting an antiproton. It did not last long, since antimatter annihilates in the presence of matter, producing energy.

Dark matter

The matter of which the Earth is composed is also found in the rest of the universe. The nuclei of stars act like gigantic fission reactors in which atoms heavier than hydrogen and helium are continually being created.

However, as we have said before, the behavior of the universe suggests a much higher density than is observed. The explanation may lie in a type of matter that is not seen, but that produces effects that can be observed and that translate into gravitational forces more intense than the density of observable matter produces.

Dark matter and energy are believed to make up 90% of the universe (the former contributing 25% of the total). Thus, only 10% ordinary matter and the rest would be dark energy, which would be homogeneously distributed throughout the universe.

References

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