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Classical element
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{{Short description|Earth, water, air, fire, and (later) aether}} {{hatgrp|{{About|the Indo-European belief of the fundamental types of matter|similar beliefs in other cultures|Element (disambiguation)#Philosophy and religion}} {{Redirect|4 Elements|the album by Chronic Future|4 Elements (album){{!}}''4 Elements'' (album)}}}} {{Use dmy dates|date=July 2020}} {{Use British English|date=October 2022}} [[File:Leibniz four elements.jpg|thumb|300px|[[Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz|Leibniz]] representation of universe resulting by combination of Aristotle four elements]] [[File:The Elements, Chelsea Porcelain Manufactory - Indianapolis Museum of Art - DSC00573.JPG|thumb|[[Rococo]] set of [[personification]] figurines of the ''Four Elements'', 1760s, [[Chelsea porcelain]]]] {{classic element}} The '''classical elements''' typically refer to [[Earth (classical element)|earth]], [[Water (classical element)|water]], [[Air (classical element)|air]], [[Fire (classical element)|fire]], and (later) [[Aether (classical element)|aether]] which were proposed to explain the nature and complexity of all [[matter]] in terms of simpler [[Substance theory|substance]]s.<ref name="Boyd2003">{{Cite book |last1=Boyd |first1=T.J.M. |url=https://archive.org/details/physicsofplasmas0000boyd |title=The Physics of Plasmas |last2=Sanderson |first2=J.J. |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2003 |isbn=9780521459129 |page=[https://archive.org/details/physicsofplasmas0000boyd/page/1 1] |lccn=2002024654 |url-access=registration}}</ref><ref name="Ball2004">{{Cite book |last=Ball |first=P. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uaBczzC4wvIC&pg=PT33 |title=The Elements: A Very Short Introduction |publisher=OUP Oxford |year=2004 |isbn=9780191578250 |series=Very Short Introductions |page=33}}</ref> Ancient cultures in [[Ancient Greece|Greece]], [[Angola]], [[Ancient Tibet|Tibet]], [[Ancient India|India]], and [[Mali]] had similar lists which sometimes referred, in local languages, to "air" as "wind", and to "aether" as "space". [[File:AMA Symbol of Meetei Sanamahism.jpg|thumb|The concept of five classical elements in the [[traditional Meitei religion]] ([[Sanamahism]])]] These different cultures and even individual philosophers had widely varying explanations concerning their attributes and how they related to observable phenomena as well as [[cosmology]]. Sometimes these theories overlapped with [[mythology]] and were [[personification|personified in deities]]. Some of these interpretations included [[atomism]] (the idea of very small, indivisible portions of matter), but other interpretations considered the elements to be divisible into infinitely small pieces without changing their nature. While the classification of the material world in ancient [[Mahābhūta|India]], [[Ancient Egypt|Hellenistic Egypt]], and [[Ancient Greece#Science and technology|ancient Greece]] into air, earth, fire, and water was more philosophical, during the [[Middle Ages]] medieval [[scientist]]s used practical, experimental observation to classify materials.<ref name="Jim">{{Cite AV media |title=Science and Islam |last=Al-Khalili |first=Jim |publisher=BBC |year=2009 |author-link=Jim Al-Khalili |title-link=Science and Islam (TV series)}}</ref> In [[Europe]], the ancient Greek concept, devised by [[Empedocles]], evolved into the systematic classifications of [[Aristotle]] and [[Hippocrates]]. This evolved slightly into the medieval system, and eventually became the object of experimental verification in the 17th century, at the start of the [[Scientific Revolution]].{{Citation needed|date=March 2025}} [[History of science#Modern science|Modern science]] does not support the classical elements to classify types of substances. [[Atomic theory]] classifies atoms into more than a hundred [[chemical element]]s such as [[oxygen]], [[iron]], and [[Mercury (element)|mercury]], which may form [[chemical compound]]s and [[mixtures]]. The modern categories roughly corresponding to the classical elements are the [[states of matter]] produced under different temperatures and pressures. [[Solid]], [[liquid]], [[gas]], and [[Plasma (physics)|plasma]] share many attributes with the corresponding classical elements of earth, water, air, and fire, but these states describe the similar behavior of different types of atoms at similar energy levels, not the characteristic behavior of certain atoms or substances. {{TOC limit|3}}
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