[Clayart] Elements, isotopes, molecules, compounds

[Mary Winter]

Hey Joseph Herbert, wowser, such a fantastic explanation of the world we
live in, very well written! I already knew this stuff but your essay was
just so enjoyable to read.

Cheers
Mary

On Sat, Jul 13, 2024 at 4:42 PM Joseph Herbert via Clayart <
clayart at lists.clayartforum.com> wrote:

> Hello,
>
> What follows ignores most of subatomic physics, quantum mechanics, etc. and
> you should too.
>
> Chemistry is the science and practice of combinations of whole atoms. When
> we mix up a glaze powder and melt it, we are doing chemistry. Actually, the
> melting is the chemistry; the powder would just sit there unchanged
> forever.
>
> The world, as we perceive it, is composed of tiny particles called atoms.
> We have found the natural world is composed of 92 different kinds of atoms,
> each of the 92 different from all the others in measurable ways. Some are
> very light, others extremely heavy.  On an assigned scale the lightest is
> 1; the heaviest is around 238.  We call the group “elements” and give each
> of the 92 a name.
>
> Clearly, we see more than 92 different things when we see the world; the
> different atoms combine with themselves and each other to make all the
> kinds of material things we see. The details of how they combine is
> Chemistry.
>
> Aristotle, a Greek person of olden times, had an idea of elements as basic
> things that made up all other things; he said there were 4 elements: fire,
> water, earth, and wind; everything else was combustions of those. That was
> wrong but we kept the idea of a few simple things combining to make
> everything else. So we have 92 names for “elements” that combine to make
> the universe.
>
> When a couple or a few atoms combine in a particular persistent way, we see
> that combination as a separate thing and give it a name as well. When
> Hydrogen and Oxygen combine, we call that water, if it is liquid, steam or
> vapor if a gas, and ice if solid. This kind of naming gets us through the
> day but tells us nothing about the chemistry of water; what is water made
> of?
>
> You can do many things to water and have it remain water but if you pass an
> electric current through it, two gasses, different from each other, bubble
> off the electrodes. Hydrogen and oxygen.
>
> We call combinations of elements compounds and the smallest part of a
> compound is a molecule. Less common combinations don’t have names like
> “Water”, so a chemical naming scheme, usually intended to convey the
> presence of all the elements involved, was devised. The combination of two
> hydrogens and one oxygen (water) could be called “hydrogen oxide”. (It
> could also be called “Oxygen dihydrate” but hydrogen is chemically
> classified as a metal and the compound would be named by the metal oxide
> convention.)
>
> There are lots of naming conventions about what exactly to call a compound
> to convey as much chemical information as possible. A large portion of the
> elements are classified as metals, having characteristics most people
> understand from everyday experience with iron, aluminum, and the like, and
> their compounds with other nonmetal elements are named in specific ways: a
> combination of a metal element with oxygen is called “XXXXXXX oxide”. That
> name means the compound contains both the metal and oxygen. Any so named
> compound contains both (or all) the elements that make up the name: iron
> oxide, manganese oxide, uranium oxide all contain both the named metal and
> oxygen.
>
> Generally, when a metal forms an oxide it becomes less chemically active.
> Most metals are not chemically stable in the presence of oxygen and so will
> combine. Many ores mined for metal production are oxides of metals, stable
> in nature. However, inside the human body chemical processes occur (we are
> mobile chemical reactors ingesting, inhaling, absorbing chemicals that are
> altered to produce energy) and if inappropriate compounds enter the body
> they may be processed too, with bad result. Some heavier metals are
> processed chemically similarly to lighter (normal) metals with sometimes
> horrible consequences. (Radium is one example)
>
> So ends this brief look into the systematic name calling of chemistry.
>
> I just put ”isotope” in the title to scare you.
>
> Joe
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