From the perspective of classical mechanics, chemists
describe matter as anything (any thing) that occupies space and has mass.[1]
[2] [3] Without matter the universe
would not contain the things that chemists concern themselves with, atoms and
all of the things of which atoms serve as building blocks, the stuff of the
universe, from stars and planets to the inanimate things of our planet and all
its living things, including people, among whom include chemists whose
interests center on studying and exploiting for knowledge and human benefit the
properties of matter and the ways matter of one form with one set of properties
transforms into matter of a different form with a different set of properties,
as, for example, when hydrogen atoms and oxygen atoms transform into liquid
water, or when liquid water transforms into solid water or vapor.[1] [2]
From the classical chemistry perspective of matter viewed as
space-occupying mass, matter includes the subatomic particles that scientists
can discern as having physical extension and mass (e.g., protons, neutrons,
quarks), electrons, the chemical elements, also called elementary substances —
"the substances from which everything tangible is made"[4] — and all
the 'compounds' and 'mixtures' chemical elements make up.[5]
Chemists do not ignore the fact that matter has structure
both at the subatomic level, and at the atomic and supra-atomic level. They
understand that facts at the subatomic level help explain facts at the
supra-atomic level, for example, that the electrons of atoms play an essential
role in determining chemical reactivity.
From the perspective of classical chemistry, informed by
quantum or nuclear physics, all matter consists of chemical elements, either
uncombined with other elements (e.g., pure gold), or bonded, each element with
itself (e.g., dioxygen (O2), or in various combinations of chemical elements of
differing species organized as 'compounds' (e.g., ionic compounds such as
sodium chloride [NaCl], covalent molecules such as glucose) or as 'mixtures'
(e.g., a solution of glucose in water, an alloy of copper and tin, a mixture of
oil and vinegar).
A minimal account of matter from the chemist´s classical
perspective requires discussion of the meanings of the terms 'thing' (or
'anything' or 'something' or 'everything'), 'space-occupying', 'mass',
'substance', 'chemical elements', 'molecules', 'ions', 'compounds', 'mixtures',
'properties', and 'chemical reactions'. This article continues with that
discussion.
This article will use the words 'object' and 'substance'
generically to refer to a 'piece' of matter, something that occupies space and
has mass, from a simplest bit or unit of matter, to a tangible sample of matter
— matter from a chemist's perspective.
When chemists define matter as anything (any thing) that
occupies space and has mass they do not, in conjunction, define thing,
presumably because they assume common knowledge of what the word 'thing' means.
Indeed, semantic linguists have discovered that the word 'thing' has a primary
meaning not definable by the use other words whose definitions do not require
knowledge of the definition of 'thing. Any attempt to define 'thing' will
require the use of words whose definitions themselves ultimately require
knowledge of the definition of the word 'thing'.[6] [7]
Though semantically primitive, 'thing' still has meaning, a
meaning a child learns from the way its elders use it, the word's origin going
back to the deep-time beginnings of human speech, however pronounced then. A
child hears his English-speaking parents frequently uttering 'thing' in
reference to what we would call material objects: "This drawer has too
many things in it", "Give me that thing before you hurt
yourself", "Put your things away".
We would understand, then, that any 'thing' that occupies
space and has mass represents matter, providing we know the meaning of the
words 'occupy', 'space', and 'mass'. A semanticist might readily define the
first two, 'occupy' and 'space', in terms of semantic primitives, but not so
readily the third, 'mass', the definition of which we consider in the next
section.
Mass gives a measure of the quantity of matter in an object,
expressed in kilograms (kg), a basic unit of the International System of Units
(SI units). Three related measures of mass exist, referred to as 'inertial
mass', 'passive gravitational mass', and 'active gravitational mass'. Physicists
have established that the three measures give equivalent values despite their
different conceptual bases. For additional information about the relationships
among those three measures of mass, see the Addendum subpage of this article.
Three points to note:
1. An
object´s mass gives a measure of the quantity of matter comprising the object;
2. Objects
have the same mass whether measured as inertial, passive, or gravitational
mass;
3. Einstein´s
theories of special and general relativity modify the Newtonian concept of
mass, which however give a useful measure of mass for most purposes in general
chemistry.[8]
4. Chemistry
conceptualizes matter as consisting of distinguishable types of matter,
referred to as 'substances'. [10] Examples of substances include such commonly
recognized space-occupying masses as water in a glass container, the glass
container itself, copper wire, a gem of pure diamond, air enclosed in a
balloon, atoms, and molecules.
5. Different
substances have different properties, either physical or chemical properties,
depending on whether or not testing for the property involves the formation of
another substance or substances. They may also exist in different 'states', or
'phases', solid, liquid, and gaseous the most familiar.
6. All
substances fall under two generic categories, 'pure substances' and 'mixtures'.
Chemists classify as the quintessentially pure substances the chemical
elements, types of matter composed solely of a single species of atom, such as
the copper atoms fashioned into copper wire, the carbon atoms comprising a
diamond gem, or iron atoms in a chunk of purified iron. Ninety-four different
species of atoms occur naturally on Earth, each collection, or sample, of which
that consists solely of atoms of a single species constitutes a pure substance
of the type of matter referred to as a chemical element, or elementary
substance.
The atoms of two or more different chemical elements
potentially can bind to each other, in constant proportions, by any one of a
variety of types of chemical bonds, forming in the process new types of pure
substances referred to as 'compounds'. Water exemplifies a compound, composed
of units of hydrogen and oxygen atoms tightly bonded, in the same proportion
per bonded unit particle, in this case, two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom
per unit particle of compound, expressed in chemical formula as H2O. Chemists
have identified the bonds in a unit particle of the water compound as so-called
covalent bonds, a type of bond that involves electron sharing between the two
hydrogen atoms and the oxygen atom, and refer to the unit particle as a
molecule. Chemists express quantities of H2O with a variety of measures of
mass, such as kilograms, a basic quantitative unit in the International System
of Units (SI units), among six other basic quantitative units, and as moles,
defined in terms of the number of atoms of a specified isotope of carbon in a
specified quantity of isotope expresed in kilograms.
