Topic objectives

1. Understand early Greek ideas concerning the make-up of matter

2. Understand how modern chemistry began with incorrect ideas such as alchemy

3. Understand that the studies of gases were the beginnings of modern chemistry

4. Be able to discuss combustion using phlogiston theory and Lavoisier’s oxygen theory.

5. Understand the importance of Lavoisier’s Law of Conservation of Mass

Discussion Topics for Wednesday

1. Describe Aristotle’s 4 elements as a combination of opposed qualities and how these ideas might structure development of early chemical theory

2. What were the goals of the alchemists and what significance did their studies have in the development of chemistry?

3. Why was the pneumatic trough (water then mercury) so significant in the study of gases?

4. How did the study of gases refute Aristotelian ideas of elements?

Reading for Monday

Selected sections from J. Hudson, The History of Chemistry. New York: Chapman & Hall, 1994.

http://web.sbu.edu/physics/faculty/dimattio/Clare102/physics.dimattio-sp03.htm

Questions for Discussion on Monday (based on reading and main lecture)

1. What is phlogiston and how is related to combustion?

2. What was Lavoisier’s oxygen theory and how did it differ from phlogiston theory?

3. How did Lavoisier’s careful measurements refute the ideas of transmutation and phlogiston theory?

4. Describe an example of combustion (wood burning, forming a metal oxide, respiration, etc.) using phlogiston theory and Lavoisier’s oxygen approach.

5. How did Lavoisier conclusions concerning the synthesis of water from burning “inflammable air” differ from Cavendish’s phlogistic interpretation?