A would repel each other and all material in list B would repel each other. Any opposite-sounding names could have been chosen, such as east and west, north and south, male and female. A positive and the materials in list B negative . The first item in each list was used as a standard for determing if a charged object was positive or negative. Any object repelled by a piece of glass rubbed on silk would have a positive charge and any item repelled by a hard rubber rod rubbed on wool would have a negative charge.
All mater is made from a combination of atoms.
Matter is any substance has mass and occupies space. Water, for example, can exist in the form of ice, as a liquid, or as a gas in the form of steam. An element is a substance that cannot be chemically divided into a simpler substance. An atom is the smallest part of an element. The three principle parts of an atom are the electron, neutron, and the proton.