ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the basic properties of solids like metals and ceramics in close relation to their structures can start from different levels of information and knowledge about the essential features of the existence of matter. In order to achieve one unique common status, some simple and general information on atoms and ions and their interactions in compound formation is repeated. The basic structural unit is a tetrahedron in the center of which one of the two kinds of ions is located, while the other kind of ions is at the corners belonging to three other tetrahedrons simultaneously. In discussing the characteristics of metals, some emphasis was directed to stress the occurrence of a large variability of properties with materials of identical chemical composition. In metals, the order of magnitude of one electron per atom can move freely. Because of the very large number, the occupation of all the energy states available within this lattice is as dense as possible.
