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The following passage is from 1975, Charles E. Mortimer, " Chemistry " [D. Van Nostrand & Co.] and is Wonderful: " The earliest known books on chemical topics were written in Alexandria, Egypt, during the Hellenic age. The name chemistry is derived from the word chemeia (probably of Egyptian origin) that the Greeks used to mean the Egyptian art. When the Arabs conquered the centers of Hellenistic civilization, the "Egyptian art" passed into their hands. The word alchemy was coined by the addition of the Arabic definite article al- to the root chemeia.

Alchemy (as well as algebra) was introduced into western culture when the Europeans made contact with the Arab world in the middle ages. The principal aim of the European alchemists was the transmutation of base metals into gold. Their work is important to the development of chemistry largely because they accumulated a sizable body of data that proved to be of value to later chemists. Four of the elements - phosphorus, arsenic, antimony, and bismuth - were discovered by alchemists. In his book The Skeptical Chymist (published in 1661) Boyle dropped the prefix al- and scoffed at the theories of the alchemists. "

Chemistry is the Study of Matter. If it had a -logy [ Greek - logos - the study of - as in Biology is the study of Life, and Geology is the study of the Earth] it would have to be Elementology - the study of the Elements.

Chemistry is the Science that defines the reasons for, and describes, the behavior of Atoms.

The basic Nature of an Atom is determined by the number of protons bound, and contained, within the Atom's Nucleus.

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Authors Patman
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Created January 28, 2012 by Patman
Modified June 10, 2023 by StandardWikitext bot
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