CHAPTER 1

THE INTRODUCTION

Learning Outcomes:
At the end of the lecture period the chemistry students are expected to:
1. Trace the history of chemistry
2. Identify the contributors in the field of chemistry
3. State the meaning of chemistry
4. Identify the different branches of chemistry
5. Explain the scientific methods,

Competency:
Articulating the history of chemistry and its branches.

Topic outline:
Definition of chemistry
Major areas of chemistry
Scientific method
Brief history

Chemistry – is the study of matter, its chemical and physical properties, the chemical and physical
changes it undergoes, and the energy changes that accompany those processes.

Major Areas of Chemistry

Chemistry is a broad area of study covering everything from the basic parts of an atom to interactions
between huge biological molecules. Because of this, chemistry encompasses the following specialties.
 Biochemistry - is the study of life at the molecular level and the processes associated with life,
such as reproduction, growth and respiration.
 Organic Chemistry – is the study of matter that is composed principally of carbon and hydrogen
 Inorganic Chemistry – is the study of matter that consists of all of the elements other than
carbon and hydrogen and their combinations.
 Analytical Chemistry – involves the analysis of matter to determine its composition and the
quantity of each kind of matter that is present
 Physical Chemistry – is a discipline that attempts to explain the way in which matter behaves

The Scientific Method

The scientific method is a systematic approach to the discovery of new information. It is not a
“cookbook recipe” that is followed faithfully, will yield new discoveries, rather it is an organized approach
to solving scientific problems.

Characteristics of the scientific process include the following:

1. Observation. It means noting and remembering what has been perceived by our senses.

2. Formulation of a question. Humankind’s fundamental curiosity motivates questions of why and how
things work.

3. Pattern recognition. If a scientist finds a cause and effect relationship, it may be the basis of a
generalized explanation of substances and their behavior.

4. Developing theories. A theory is a hypothesis supported by extensive testing that explains scientific
facts and can predict new facts.

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Chapter 1: Introduction
5. Experimentation. Demonstrating the correctness of hypotheses and theories is at the heart of the
scientific method. This is done by carrying out carefully designed experiments that will either support
or disprove the theory or hypothesis.
6. Summarizing information. A scientific law is nothing more than the summary of a large quantity of
information. For example, the law conservation of matter states that matter cannot be created or
destroyed, only converted from one form to another. This statement represents a massive body of
chemical information gathered from experiments.

HISTORY OF CHEMISTRY
(http://www.columbia.edu/itc/chemistry/chem-c2507/navbar/chemhist.html)
Chemistry is a branch of science that has been around for a long period of time. History of chemistry is
split into four general chronological categories. The four categories are:
1. prehistoric times up to beginning of the Christian era (black magic)
2. beginning of the Christian era up to the end of 17th century (alchemy)
3. end of 17th century up to the mid 19th century (traditional chemistry)
4. mid 19th century up to the present (modern chemistry
Time Interval Specific Events Description
times

1700 BC King Hammurabi’s reign Known metals were recorded and listed in
over Babylon conjunction with heavenly bodies.

430 BC Democritus of ancient Democritus proclaims the atom to be the

Prehistoric times – Greece simplest unit of matter. All matter was
Beginning of the composed of atoms
Christian Era (Black
Magic)
Aristotle declares the existence of only four
300 BC Aristotle of ancient elements: fire, air, water and earth. All matter is
(http://tqd.advanced.org/2690/ Greece made up of these four elements and matter had
hist/black.html) four properties: hot, cold, dry and wet.

Influenced greatly by Aristotle’s ideas,

300 BC – 300 The Advent of the alchemists attempted to transmute cheap
AD Achemists metals to gold. The substance used for this
conversion was called the Philosopher’s
Stone.

Beginning of the
Christian Era – End
of the 17th century
(Alchemy)
(http://tqd.advanced.org/2690/
hist/alchemy.html)
13th Century Although Pope John XXII issued an edict
(1200’s) – against gold-making, the gold business
15th Century Failure of the Gold continued. Despite the alchemists’ efforts,
(1400’s) Business transmutation of cheap metals to gold never
happened within this time period.

Alchemists not only wanted to convert metals to

1520 Elixir of Life gold, but they also wanted to find a chemical
concoction (new and unusual mixture) that
would enable people to live longer and cure all
ailments. The elixir of life never happened
either.

The disproving of Aristotle’s four-element theory

End of 17th Death of Alchemy and the publishing of the book, The Skeptical

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Chapter 1: Introduction
 Century Chemist (by Robert Boyle), combined to
destroy this early form of chemistry.

Johann J. Beecher believed in a substance

called phlogiston. When a substance is
burned, phlogiston was supposedly added from
the air to the flame of the burning object. In
some substances, a product is produced.
1700’s Phlogiston Theory Charles Coulomb discovered that given two
particles separated by a certain distance, the
force of attraction or repulsion is directly
proportional to the product of the two charges
End of 17th Century and is inversely proportional to the distance
– Mid 19th Century between the two charges.

(http://tqd.advanced.org/2690/ Joseph Priestley heated calx (metal oxide) of

hist/traditional.html) mercury, collected the colorless gas and burned
different substances in this colorless gas.
Priestley called the gas “dephlogisticated air,”
1774 - 1794 Disproving of the but it was actually oxygen. It was Antoine
Phlogiston Theory Lavoisier who disproved the Phlogiston
Theory. He renamed the “dephlogisticated air”
to oxygen when he realized that the oxygen was
the part of air that combines with substances as
they burn. Because of Lavoisier’s work, he is
now called the “Father of Modern Chemistry”.

John Dalton publishes his Atomic Theory which

1803 Dalton’s Atomic Theory states that all matter is composed of atoms,
which are small and indivisible.

1854 Vacuum tube Heinrich Geissler creates the first vacuum

tube.

William Crookes made headway in modern

atomic theory when he used the vacuum tube
made by Heinrich Geissler to discover cathode
rays. Crookes created a glass vacuum tube
which had a zinc sulfide coating on the inside of
one end, a metal cathode imbedded in the other
1879 Cathode Rays end and a metal anode in the shape of a cross
th
Mid 19 Century – in the middle of the tube. When electricity was
Present (Modern run through the apparatus, an image of the
cross appeared and the zinc sulfide glowed.
Chemistry of 20th
Crookes hypothesized that there must have
Century been rays coming from the cathode which
caused the zinc sulfide to fluoresce and the
cross to create a shadow and these rays were
(http://tqd.advanced.org/2690/
called cathode rays.
hist/modern.html)

Eugene Goldstein discovered positive particles

by using a tube filled with hydrogen gas. The
1885 The Proton positive particle had a charge equal and
opposite to the electron. It also had a mass of
1.66E-24 grams or one atomic mass unit. The
positive particle was named the proton.

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Chapter 1: Introduction
 Wilhelm Roentgen accidentally discovered x-
rays while researching the glow produced by
cathode rays. Roentgen performed his research
on cathode rays within a dark room and during
his research, he noticed that a bottle of barium
platinocyanide was glowing on a shelf. He
discovered that the rays that were causing the
1895 X – rays fluorescence could also pass through glass,
cardboard and walls. The rays were called x-
rays.

Henri Becquerel was studying the fluorescence

of pitchblend when he discovered a property of
1896 Pitchblend (mineral the pitchblend compound. Pitchblend gave a
source of uranium) fluorescent light with or without the aid of
sunlight.

The Electron and Its J.J. Thomson placed the Crookes’ tube within
Properties a magnetic field. He found that the cathode rays
were negatively charged and that each charge
had a mass ratio of 1.759E8 coulombs per
gram. He concluded that all atoms have this
negative charge (through more experiments)
1897 and he renamed the cathode rays electrons. His
model of the atom showed a sphere of
positively charged material with negative
electrons stuck in it. Thomson received the
1996 Nobel Prize in physics.

Marie Curie discovered uranium and thorium

Radioactive Elements within pitchblend. She then continued to
discover two previously unknown elements:
radium and polonium. These two new elements
Mid 19th Century – were also found in pitchblend. She received two
Present (Modern Nobel prizes for her discovery; one was in
Chemistry of 20th chemistry while the other was in physics.
Century
Robert Millikan discovered the mass of an
electron by introducing charged oil droplets into
an electrically charged field. The charge of the
electron was found to be 1.602E-19 coulombs.
1909 Mass of the Electron Using Thomson’s mass ratio, Millikan found the
mass of one electron to be 9.11E-28 grams.
Millikan received the 1932 Nobel Prize in
Physics for his discovery.

Ernest Rutherford sent a radioactive source

through a magnetic field. Some of the
radioactivity was deflected to the positive plate;
some of it was deflected to the negative plate;
and the rest went through the magnetic field
without deflection. Thus, there were three types
of radioactivity: alpha particle (+), beta
1911 Three Types of particles (-) and gamma rays (neutral). By
Radioactivity performing other experiments and using this
information, Rutherford created an atomic
model different from Thomson’s. Rutherford
believed that the atom was mostly empty space.

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Chapter 1: Introduction
 It contains an extremely tiny, dense positively
charged nucleus (full of protons) and the
nucleus is surrounded by electrons traveling at
extremely high speeds. The Thomson model
was thrown out after the introduction of the
Rutherford model.

Henry Moseley attempts to use x-rays to

determine the number of protons in the nucleus
1914 Protons within a of each atom. He was unsuccessful because
Mid 19th Century – Nucleus the neutron had not been discovered yet.
Present (Modern
Chemistry of 20th
Neutron Bombardment James Chadwick discovers the neutron.
Century
1932 and Nuclear Fission Nuclear fission occurred when Fermi
bombarded uranium with neutrons. He received
the 1938 Nobel Prize in Physics.

Irene Curie and Frederic Joliot-Curie

discovered that radioactive elements could be
1934 Artificial radioactive created artificially in the lab with the
Elements bombardment of alpha particles on certain
elements. They were give the 1935 Nobel Prize.

Albert Einstein and Enrico Fermi both warned

the United States about Germany’s extensive
1940’s Manhattan Project research on atomic fission reaction. University
of Chicago, of United State developed the very
first working nuclear fission reactor. The
Manhattan Project was in process.

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Chapter 1: Introduction