Matter

All real entities are materialistic. In material world, existence of matter is nearest to absolute truth. Real entities are material objects made out of matter. Matter is the stuff that gives real entities their materialistic existence. Matter is a physical substance that occupies space and may be perceived by one or more senses. Matter is distinct from qualities, properties, thoughts, mind and spirit. Only the matter is real. All others are functional. Having matter-content as its substance, makes an entity a real object that may be perceived by sensory organs. In (Aristotelian and Scholastic) philosophy, matter is in itself undifferentiated and formless and which, when subjected to change and development, receives form and becomes substance. Hence, matter is the substance any physical object consists of or is composed of or simply matter is something that exists in space. At different stages of history, the concept of matter had many variations, in the light of scientific knowledge prevailing at the time of what are considered as basic building blocks and their interactions. At one stage, atoms were considered as basic building blocks and all matter were considered to be constituted by atoms. Later, matter was viewed as solid, massive and movable particles. Still later, smaller fundamental constituents of matter were discovered to change the constitution of matter. Currently, in physics and chemistry, matter is assumed to exhibit both wave-like and particle-like properties, the so-called wave-particle duality. Often matter is disregarded and one of its attributes, the mass, is accorded the status of reality. Matter is the ‘material substance that constitutes the observable universe and, together with energy, forms the basis of all objective phenomena’ (encyclopedia Britannica). All matter share certain fundamental properties. Currently, matter is (generally) regarded to have certain properties, as understood from observation of nature. Every physical entity is assumed to have properties of mass, gravitation, inertia, etc. All primary properties of matter are amenable to mathematical description. Nevertheless, its secondary properties (or qualities) are not considered mathematically. Although, mass of a body is a measure of its inertia, it is commonly taken as equivalent to a measure of the amount of material contained in the body. Matter in bulk may have several states of existence in nature. A common definition of ‘matter is anything that has mass and occupies a volume’. Matter has many definitions in physics, but the most common one currently used is that it is any substance, which has mass and occupies space and exists in one of the physical states. All physical objects are composed of matter, in the form of atoms, which are in turn composed of protons, deuterons, neutrons, electrons, etc. Currently, photons are assumed to have no mass, so they are an example of something in present-day physics, which is not comprised of matter. They are also not considered as objects, in the traditional sense, as they cannot remain static. In cosmology, the term matter includes dark matter and dark energy, concepts used to explain some anomalous phenomena observed in the universe. These exotic forms of ‘matter’ do not refer to matter as substance that occupies space but rather to unknown entities of mass and energy. Definition of matter is revised in light of quantum mechanics, where the concept of ‘having mass’, and ‘occupying space’ do not have the same meaning as in everyday life. Some similar theories hold the view that bodies are made of several substances and the properties of matter (including, mass and volume) are determined not only by the constituent substances themselves, but by how they interact. In other words, matter is made up of interacting ‘building blocks’. According to special theory of relativity, matter (considered as mass) and energy are equivalent. Accordingly, mass (matter) can be converted into energy and energy into mass (matter). Usually, matter is ignored altogether in this theory. Mass usurps its place. See: http://vixra.org/pdf/1206.0048v2.pdf