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Matter
Antimatter | Elementary Particles | Bosons | Fermions
Matter
One contemporary view on matter takes it as
all scientifically observable entities whatsoever. Commonly, the definition is
limited to such entities explored by
physics.
The definition pursued here is of matter as
whatever the smallest, most fundamental entities in
physics seem to be. Thus matter can be seen as material consisting of
particles which are
fermions and therefore obey the
Pauli exclusion principle, which states that no two fermions can be in the
same quantum state. Because of this principle, the particles which comprise
matter do not all end up in their lowest energy state, and hence it is possible
to create stable structures out of fermions. In addition, the Pauli exclusion
principle insures that two pieces of matter will not occupy the same location at
the same time, and therefore two pieces of matter in which most energy states
are filled will tend to collide with each other rather than passing through each
other as with energy fields such as
light.
The matter that we observe most commonly takes the form of
compounds,
polymers,
alloys, or pure
elements.
In response to different thermodynamic conditions such as
temperature and
pressure, matter can exist in different "phases",
the most familar of which are
solid,
liquid, and
gas.
Others include
plasma,
superfluid, and
Bose-Einstein condensate. When matter changes from one phase to another, it
undergoes what is known as a
phase transition, a phenonmenon studied in the field of
thermodynamics.
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