You can also perform a test. Take some of the material and add enough water to it to make it seem like you are making bread.

VOA: special.2009.09.14

You take a material like silver and put it in a glass case and that's the definition of a meter.

你拿某种材料,比如银,把它放进玻璃柜里,那是一米的定义

耶鲁公开课 - 基础物理课程节选

Likewise for mass, we will take a chunk of some material and we will call it a kilogram.

质量也是这样,我们找来一大块材料,然后称它为 1 千克

耶鲁公开课 - 基础物理课程节选

G We can take the derivative of G with respect to how much material there is.

我们可以取,对物质总量的偏导数。

麻省理工公开课 - 热力学与动力学课程节选

The institutions and the ideas therefore, that provide for freedom and improvement in the material conditions of life, cannot take root and flourish without an understanding of how they came about and what challenges they have had to surmount.

故此,这些机制和理念,为物质生活条件的自由和改善,提供了基础,但在不知道其根源且,无法预料的挑战之前,机制和理念是不可能扎根的

耶鲁公开课 - 古希腊历史简介课程节选