First of all, the summary of what chemistry is.
Chemistry (the etymology of the word has been much disputed) is the science of matter and the changes it undergoes.
The science of matter is also addressed by physics, but while physics takes a more general and fundamental approach, chemistry is more specialized, being concerned with the composition, behavior (or reaction), structure, and properties of matter, as well as the changes it undergoes during chemical reactions.
IT'S HISTORY:Ancient Egyptians pioneered the art of synthetic "wet" chemistry up to 4,000 years ago.
By 1000 BC ancient civilizations were using technologies that formed the basis of the various branches of chemistry such as; extracting metal from their ores, making pottery and glazes, fermenting beer and wine, making pigments for cosmetics and painting, extracting chemicals from plants for medicine and perfume, making cheese, dying cloth, tanning leather, rendering fat into soap, making glass, and making alloys like bronze.
The genesis of chemistry can be traced to the widely observed phenomenon of burning that led to metallurgy—the art and science of processing ores to get metals (e.g. metallurgy in ancient India).
The greed for gold led to the discovery of the process for its purification, even though the underlying principles were not well understood—it was thought to be a transformation rather than purification. Many scholars in those days thought it reasonable to believe that there exist means for transforming cheaper (base) metals into gold.
This gave way to alchemy and the search for the Philosopher's Stone which was believed to bring about such a transformation by mere touch.
A tentative outline is as follows:
- Egyptian alchemy [3,000 BCE – 400 BCE], formulate early "element" theories such as the Ogdoad.
- Greek alchemy [332 BCE – 642 CE], the Greek king Alexander the Great conquers Egypt and founds Alexandria, having the world's largest library, where scholars and wise men gather to study.
- Arab alchemy [642 CE – 1200], the Muslim conquest of Egypt; development of alchemy by Jābir ibn Hayyān, al-Razi and others; Jābir modifies Aristotle's theories; advances in processes and apparatus.[14]
- European alchemy [1300 – present], Pseudo-Geber builds on Arabic chemistry.[citation needed] From the 12th century, major advances in the chemical arts shifted from Arab lands to western Europe.[14]
- Chemistry [1661], Boyle writes his classic chemistry text The Sceptical Chymist.
- Chemistry [1787], Lavoisier writes his classic Elements of Chemistry.
- Chemistry [1803], Dalton publishes his Atomic Theory.
- Chemistry [1869], Dmitry Mendeleev presented his Periodic table being the framework of the modern chemistry
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemistry
B) What is the concept behind the naming?
First things first.
- A binary compound is one that is composed of two elements that have been chemically combined. - An ionic compound is one formed when a metal chemically combines with a non-metal.
(This chemical combination will always result in an ionic compound.)
In determining the formula of a binary ionic compound, we will follow a set of steps until you are comfortable with the process...
First of all, you will need to know or at least have access to a listing of common ions, their symbols, their charges (valences), and their names.
Some elements have more than one possible charge or valence. These are referred to as the multi-valent elements.
Iron for instance has a +2 charge (Iron II or Ferrous) in some compounds and a +3 charge (Iron III or Ferric) in other compounds so we will have to recognize in which state the Iron is in and write the formula accordingly.
So for example what is the formula of Copper (I) Oxide?
-
Identify the symbols of the cation and anion
Copper is Cu and Oxide is O
-
Identify the charge for each and place above the symbol in parenthesis
For Copper I that would be +1 and for Oxide that would be -2
-
Balance the positive and negative charges
Since each Copper is +1 and each Oxide is -2 then it will take two Cu+ to balance one oxide with a -2 so that
2(+1) + 1(-2) = 0. The numbers outside the parenthesis become the subscripts in the formula
C) Does ate represent 3 Oxygen atoms?
The answer is no, they contain oxygen. The difference between ATE and ITE is that the ones with ITE contains 1 oxygen less than the same ones with the ATE.
*The -ate and -ite represent different polyatomic ions containing oxygen; the exact formula and number of oxygen atoms depends on the specific ion. An -ate ion typically has one oxygen atom more than an -ite ion.*
