The document discusses modes of size reduction and ball mills. It describes four main modes of size reduction: cutting, compression, impact, and attrition. Ball mills are versatile machines that use both impact and attrition to reduce materials to particles between 10 to 400 micrometers. They consist of a horizontal cylinder filled with balls that crush the drug material placed inside. Ball mills are commonly used to reduce pharmaceutical materials due to their ability to produce fine particles while operating in an enclosed system with reduced dust.