The History of Chemistry: Composition Quiz

Answer: Greeks

Around 600-400 B.C., early philosophers postulated that there was one primary matter that everything was composed of. Water, fire, and air were all candidates for this basic elemental matter.

Answer: Democritus

Born in 460 B.C., Democritus said that the prime matter was composed of a large number of indivisible atoms and that change could be explained through the particles' motion in a void.

Answer: water; fire; earth; air

Empedocles said that these were more than the everyday observational species. They were the 'essence' of which tangible things were the most illustrative examples.

Answer: hot; cold; wet; dry

Aristotle suggested that all substances were derived from an essential "beingness" plus all the properties in pairs. For example, earth is cold and dry, fire is hot and dry, water is cold and wet, and air is hot and wet.

Answer: Changing base metals into gold

Depending on the period and region in which it was sought, the Philosopher's Stone was thought to have various characteristics. Alchemists tried to get support from princes to "fund" their research but if the princes got frustrated by the lack of results, this could end the research...or the alchemist!

Answer: 17th

Although used for metallurgy, the balance was not used for chemical processes until the 17th century when Joseph Black was the first to use it in an accurate way. We obviously know now how important mass changes are in chemistry.

Answer: salt; sulphur; mercury

Salt was seen as the principle of incombustibility & non-volatility. Sulphur was the principle of inflammability.
Mercury was the principle of volatility & fusibility.

Answer: Robert Boyle

Boyle attacked Aristotelian & Paracelsian views of elements and principles. He gave his famous definition of an element and this was adapted by practical chemists until the mid-18th century. He was more into the physical science based on experimental data, rather than theory.

Answer: E. F. Geoffroy

Georg Stahl used the notion of affinity to explain data that he produced. However, he never made a table from the data. Geoffroy put these data into his "Table des Rapports" consisting of 16 columns, each headed by the traditional symbol for the substance for which the column referred. Underneath were the symbols of substances with which that substance reacted, in order of affinity.

Answer: Joseph Black

Black was a very influential chemist. Although his work and achievements were many, there were 2 important reasons that came out of his work. The first was the accurate use of the balance, as mentioned previously, and second was his demonstration for the first time of properties of a chemically distinct "air".

I do hope all who play have enjoyed this quiz and learned something from it. I get some flack for how dry my quizzes can be but I hope if you are a chemist enthusiast, you will like them. Feel free to email me and let me know what you think, or how I can improve them for players, or if you'd like to see more of them. Thanks again!