# sample (material)

a piece taken from a whole to act as an example

- Computed level: L11 (depth in the emergence graph, not abstraction)
- Status: review  ·  Domain: emergence  ·  Arena: sample

## Emergence
**Emerges from:** [piece](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-piece.portion), [whole](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-whole.complete), [example](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-example.illustration), [act](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-act.deed), [take](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-take.acquisition)

**Through:** Taking a piece from a whole and showing it as an example is this concept

**Novel properties:**
- representative subset
- demonstrative instance
- extracted for inspection

## Examples
- The Apollo 11 mission returned 21.6 kilograms of lunar rock samples from the Sea of Tranquility to study on Earth. *(space exploration)*
- In 1953, James Watson and Francis Crick used Rosalind Franklin's X-ray diffraction image 'Photograph 51' as a sample of DNA's structure. *(biology)*
- The US Geological Survey collects water samples from the Colorado River at Lee's Ferry to monitor sediment and chemical content. *(environmental science)*

## Used by
- [sudden](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-sudden.temporal) (L12)
- [the compression claim](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-the-compression-claim.assertion) (L12)

---
*Canonical: https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-sample.material*  
*Structured data: https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-sample.material.json*  
*Every definition provably resolves to space, time, energy and pattern.*