We explain what a group is and what its different definitions are in various areas such as social and musical groups, among others.
What is group?
One group refers to a set of beings, individuals, or even things, which can be identified by their proximity, their common characteristics, or any other characteristic that allows them to be differentiated. We are not only talking about groups of individuals, but this concept extends to almost all areas, from chemistry to music.
Social group
A social group refers to two or more individuals who share common characteristics, whether religious, cultural, etc. This group is located within a specific context, in a specific society, where they fulfill particular roles and interact with other individuals.
The set of individuals in groups may be the product of a theoretical abstraction of a researcher (By this we mean the fact that a person may not necessarily feel part of a group, but meets certain useful requirements for an investigation and that places him in a certain group) or it may be an explicit choice of a person, either a political group or even a subculture.
The term subculture refers to cultures parallel to the dominant one, which are characterized in many cases by the rejection of it and totally different patterns of coexistence, in addition to generating a feeling of very high belonging among its members.
When the character that defines a group is its economic level, the possibility of access to high educational levels, among other privileges, we are talking about a social class. In a very light way, We can characterize social classes into three large groups: high, medium, and low. These three social classes not only generate their membership mechanisms, but also have ideological mechanisms that reproduce a social view from the perspective of this class.
In addition, we can find study or work groups, in which a certain set of individuals meets for a certain purpose, and generally has a division of tasks.
Band
A musical group refers to a set of musicians who decide to join together in order to form a musical band. The different genres have developed different variants in terms of the types of groups, such as the chamber ensemble or the symphony orchestra in classical music, or the well-known rock or jazz groups.
Group in Chemistry
In the field of chemistry, we can speak of a group when we refer to a series of elements present in the periodic table, and their arrangement is such that they represent the common characteristics by which they are grouped. There are 18 groups in the periodic table, ten short groups and eight long groups.
As we said previously, its ordering is not random, but rather they correspond to each other since they have the same valence number (the valence number is nothing more than the total of electrons present in the last shell of the element). This same valence provides similar characteristics to the different elements that make up the groups.
Astronomy Group
Astronomy has its own use of the term group. Its correct use is «local group«, I understand this as set of galaxies that are close to ours. Both the Andromeda Galaxy and the Triangle Galaxy are the closest and because of this, the most explored by astronomers. This happens because there is a center of mass that functions as an axis for the galaxies that surround it.