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Matter organizes into various phases or states of matter depending on its constituents and external factors like pressure and temperature. Except at extreme temperatures and pressures, atoms form the three classical states of matter: solid , liquid and gas .
The term phase is sometimes used as a synonym for state of matter, but it is possible for a single compound to form different phases that are in the same state of matter. For example, ice is the solid state of water, but there are multiple phases of ice with different crystal structures , which are formed at different pressures and temperatures.
In bulk, matter can exist in several different forms, or states of aggregation, known as phases, [48] depending on ambient pressure, temperature and volume. [49] A phase is a form of matter that has a relatively uniform chemical composition and physical properties (such as density, specific heat, refractive index, and so forth).
Plasma is called the fourth state of matter after solid, liquid, and gas. [16] [17] [18] It is a state of matter in which an ionized substance becomes highly electrically conductive to the point that long-range electric and magnetic fields dominate its behaviour. [19] [20]
Iron-carbon phase diagram, showing the conditions necessary to form different phases. Distinct phases may be described as different states of matter such as gas, liquid, solid, plasma or Bose–Einstein condensate. Useful mesophases between solid and liquid form other states of matter. Distinct phases may also exist within a given state of matter.
The science of matter is also addressed by physics, but while physics takes a more general and fundamental approach, chemistry is more specialized, being concerned by the composition, behavior (or reaction), structure, and properties of matter, as well as the changes it undergoes during chemical reactions.
A combination of three u, d or s-quarks with a total spin of 3 / 2 form the so-called "baryon decuplet". Proton quark structure: 2 up quarks and 1 down quark. Main article: List of baryons
These three colored quarks together form a color-neutral baryon. Symmetrically, three antiquarks with the colors "antired", "antiblue" and "antigreen" can form a color-neutral antibaryon . Quarks also carry fractional electric charges , but, since they are confined within hadrons whose charges are all integral, fractional charges have never ...