Early Indian philosophers and ancient Greek philosophers classified matter in the from of five basic elements “Panch Tatva” - air, earth, fire, sky and water. All living and non living things are made of these five basic elements.

In our surroundings, we see a large variety of things with different shapes, size and textures. Everything in this universe is made up of material which scientists have named “Matter” for example air, food, stones, clouds, stars, plants and animals, even a small drop of water. The perception of joy, love, hate, thought, cold, hot, pain does not constitute matter while we perceive.

Material :- The term used to describe a particular kind of matter, is called material e.g. – wood, water and marble.

Type of material :-

(a) Homogeneous material :- A material which has same composition and same properties throughout, is called homogeneous material .

(b) Heterogeneous material :- A material which has different composition and different properties in different parts is called heterogeneous material. For e.g. – In marble, presence of grey and red grains of other materials.

Matter : - Anything which occupies space and has mass is called matter, so everything in the universe is “matter” .Some examples of matter are, water, air, metals, plants, animals etc. The matter can be classified into different categories depending upon its physical or chemical nature

(a) Matter is categorized as a gas, a liquid and a solid on the basis of physical state. For e.g. – Air, water, and the earth.