A material is defined as a substance (most often a solid, but other condensed phases can be included) that is intended to be used for certain applications. There are a myriad of materialsaround us—they can be found in anything from buildings to spacecrafts. Materials can generally be divided into two classes: crystalline and non-crystalline.
The traditional examples of materials are metals, ceramics and polymers. New and advanced materials that are being developedinclude semiconductors, nanomaterials, biomaterials etc.The material of choice of a given era is often a defining point. Phrases such as Stone Age, Bronze Age, Iron Age, and Steel Age are great examples. Originally deriving from the manufacture of ceramics and its putative derivative metallurgy, materials science is one of the oldest forms of engineering and applied science. Modern materials science evolved directly frommetallurgy, which itself evolved from mining and (likely) ceramics and the use of fire.
A major breakthrough in the understanding of materials occurred in the late 19th century, when the American scientist Josiah Willard Gibbs demonstrated that the thermodynamic properties related to atomic structure in various phases are related to the physical properties of a material.
