Material is anything made of matter constituted of one or more Chemical substance . Wood, cement, hydrogen, air and water are all examples of materials. Sometimes the term "material" is used more narrowly to refer to substances or components with certain physical properties that are used as inputs to Production, costs, and pricing or manufacturing In this sense, materials are the parts required to make something else, from building and Art medium to Star formation and computer .

Raw materials and processing

A material can be anything: a finished product in its own right or an unprocessed raw material Raw materials are first extracted or harvested from the earth and divided into a form that can be easily transported and stored, then processed to produce semi-finished materials. These can be input into a new cycle of production and Finishing (disambiguation) processes to create finished materials, ready for Distribution (business) construction and Consumption (economics)

Examples

;Cotton An example of a raw material is cotton which is harvested from plants. Cotton can be processed into thread (also considered a raw material), which can then be woven into Textile a semi-finished material. Cutting and sewing the fabric turns it into a Clothing which is a finished product. ;Steel Steelmaking is another exampleraw materials in the form of ore are mined, refined and processed into steel a semi-finished material. Steel is then used as an input in many other industries to make finished products.

Chemistry

In chemistry materials can be divided into different typologies in relation to their composition, for example: * metal and alloy * ceramic * plastic * semiconductor * composite material .

See also

* Chemical substance * Chemical compound * Materials science * List of building materials * Raw material Category:Materials bg:Материал ca:Material da:Materiale de:Material et:Materjal es:Material fr:Matériau id:Bahan is:Efni it:Materiale he:חומר גלם lt:Medžiaga (apskaita) nl:Materiaal no:Materiale pl:Materiał sv:Material th:วัสดุ uk:Матеріал vi:Vật liệu yi:שטאף zh:材料