What is matter made of

Matter is made of single particles called atoms and is any substance that has either mass or
volume. Matter can exist in three states, either as a solid, a liquid or a gas.
Atoms are the basic building blocks of matter and bind together to make elements. Elements are
a substance that can only have one type of atom. Hydrogen can only have hydrogen atoms, and
oxygen can only contain oxygen atoms.
When two or more atoms combine, they form molecules. Molecules can be comprised of atoms
that are different or alike. A water molecule is formed by the combination of two hydrogen
atoms and a single oxygen atom. That molecular bond is better known as H2O.
Atoms are made up of three sub-atomic protons called protons, neutrons and electrons. The
protons and neutrons are densely packed together in the nucleus, while electrons stay in constant
random motion orbiting around the outside of the nucleus. These sub-atomic particles are
actually known as composite particles and are made up of smaller particles called elementary
particles.
Scientists have identified 37 elementary particles. Photons, bosons, gluons, hadrons, quarks,
muons, leptons, taus and neutrinos also constitute parts of an atom. They each play a unique role,
such as that of the gluon, which helps to hold quarks in place. Physicists have discovered the
Higgs-Boson, which provides mass to the other particles. Other sub-atomic particles are thought
to exist, but they have yet to be discovered.
A particle is a minute fragment or quantity of matter.[1] In the physical sciences, a particle is a
small localized object to which can be ascribed several physical or chemical properties such as
volume or mass.[2] They vary greatly in size, from subatomic particles like the electron, to
microscopic particles like atoms and molecules, to macroscopic particles like powders and other
granular materials. Particles can also be used to create scientific models of even larger objects,
such as humans moving in a crowd.
The term is rather general in meaning, and is refined as needed by various scientific fields.
Something that is composed of particles may be referred to as being particulate.[3] However, the
term particulate is most frequently used to refer to pollutants in the Earth's atmosphere, which
are a suspension of unconnected particles, rather than a connected particle aggregation.

An atom is the smallest constituent unit of ordinary matter that has the properties of a chemical
element.[1] Every solid, liquid, gas, and plasma is composed of neutral or ionized atoms. Atoms
are very small; typical sizes are around 100 pm (a ten-billionth of a meter, in the short scale).[2]
However, atoms do not have well-defined boundaries, and there are different ways to define their
size that give different but close values.
Atoms are small enough that attempting to predict their behavior using classical physics - as if
they were billiard balls, for example - gives noticeably incorrect predictions due to quantum
effects. Through the development of physics, atomic models have incorporated quantum
principles to better explain and predict the behavior.
Every atom is composed of a nucleus and one or more electrons bound to the nucleus. The
nucleus is made of one or more protons and typically a similar number of neutrons. Protons and
neutrons are called nucleons. More than 99.94% of an atom's mass is in the nucleus. The protons
have a positive electric charge, the electrons have a negative electric charge, and the neutrons
have no electric charge. If the number of protons and electrons are equal, that atom is electrically
neutral. If an atom has more or fewer electrons than protons, then it has an overall negative or
positive charge, respectively, and it is called an ion.
The electrons of an atom are attracted to the protons in an atomic nucleus by this electromagnetic
force. The protons and neutrons in the nucleus are attracted to each other by a different force, the
nuclear force, which is usually stronger than the electromagnetic force repelling the positively
charged protons from one another. Under certain circumstances the repelling electromagnetic
force becomes stronger than the nuclear force, and nucleons can be ejected from the nucleus,
leaving behind a different element: nuclear decay resulting in nuclear transmutation.
Here are some examples of atoms:
neon, Ne
hydrogen, H
plutonium, Pu
protium, an isotope of hydrogen
a calcium ion, Ca2+

A molecule is an electrically neutral group of two or more atoms held together by chemical
bonds.[3][4][5][6][7] Molecules are distinguished from ions by their lack of electrical charge.
However, in quantum physics, organic chemistry, and biochemistry, the term molecule is often
used less strictly, also being applied to polyatomic ions.
In the kinetic theory of gases, the term molecule is often used for any gaseous particle regardless
of its composition. According to this definition, noble gas atoms are considered molecules as
they are in fact monoatomic molecules.[8]
A molecule may be homonuclear, that is, it consists of atoms of one chemical element, as with
oxygen (O2); or it may be heteronuclear, a chemical compound composed of more than one
element, as with water (H2O). Atoms and complexes connected by non-covalent interactions,
such as hydrogen bonds or ionic bonds, are generally not considered single molecules.[9]
Molecules as components of matter are common in organic substances (and therefore
biochemistry). They also make up most of the oceans and atmosphere. However, the majority of
familiar solid substances on Earth, including most of the minerals that make up the crust, mantle,
and core of the Earth, contain many chemical bonds, but are not made of identifiable molecules.
Also, no typical molecule can be defined for ionic crystals (salts) and covalent crystals (network
solids), although these are often composed of repeating unit cells that extend either in a plane
(such as in graphene) or three-dimensionally (such as in diamond, quartz, or sodium chloride).
The theme of repeated unit-cellular-structure also holds for most condensed phases with metallic
bonding, which means that solid metals are also not made of molecules. In glasses (solids that
exist in a vitreous disordered state), atoms may also be held together by chemical bonds with no
presence of any definable molecule, nor any of the regularity of repeating units that characterizes
crystals.
Examples of Molecules:
1. Carbon dioxide - CO2
2. Water - H2O
3. Oxygen we breathe into our lungs - O2
4. Sugar - C12H22O11
5. Glucose - C6H12O6
6. Nitrous oxide - "Laughing gas" - N2O
7. Acetic acid - part of vinegar - CH3COOH

The ngstrm (Swedish: [strm]) or angstrom is a unit of length equal to 1010 m (one ten-
billionth of a metre) or 0.1 nanometre. Its symbol is , a letter in the Swedish alphabet.
The natural sciences and technology often use ngstrm to express sizes of atoms, molecules,
microscopic biological structures, and lengths of chemical bonds, arrangement of atoms in
crystals, wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation, and dimensions of integrated circuit parts.
Atoms of phosphorus, sulfur, and chlorine are about an ngstrm in covalent radius, while a
hydrogen atom is about half an ngstrm; see atomic radius. Visible light has wavelengths in the
range of 40007000 .
The unit is named after the Swedish physicist Anders Jonas ngstrm (18141874). The symbol
is always written with a ring diacritic, as the letter in the Swedish alphabet. The unit's name is
often written in English without the diacritics,[1] but the official definitions do contain them.[2][3]
It is not a part of the SI system of units.
A scanning tunneling microscope (STM) is an instrument for imaging surfaces at the atomic
level. Its development in 1981 earned its inventors, Gerd Binnig and Heinrich Rohrer (at IBM
Zrich), the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1986.[1][2] For an STM, good resolution is considered to be
0.1 nm lateral resolution and 0.01 nm depth resolution.[3] With this resolution, individual atoms
within materials are routinely imaged and manipulated. The STM can be used not only in ultra-
high vacuum but also in air, water, and various other liquid or gas ambients, and at temperatures
ranging from near zero kelvin to a few hundred degrees Celsius.[4]
The STM is based on the concept of quantum tunneling. When a conducting tip is brought very
near to the surface to be examined, a bias (voltage difference) applied between the two can allow
electrons to tunnel through the vacuum between them. The resulting tunneling current is a
function of tip position, applied voltage, and the local density of states (LDOS) of the sample.[4]
Information is acquired by monitoring the current as the tip's position scans across the surface,
and is usually displayed in image form. STM can be a challenging technique, as it requires
extremely clean and stable surfaces, sharp tips, excellent vibration control, and sophisticated
electronics, but nonetheless many hobbyists have built their own.[5]