Up until 350 BCE, the 4 elements of science were Earth, Water, Fire and Air. When Aristotle came around, he added the 5th element, Ether. Ether is not visible, it has no form. It underlies all the other elements. It is what makes us alive. These five elements were the basic building blocks of everything in the world. You could take at anything, and it would fall into one of these categories. Today we still think of these elements, but with different names. Earth is the solids, Water is the liquids, and Air is gases.
Aristotle introduces a new way of thinking about science. He would take something, and think about it. He would not necessarily observe it. He would think about it in terms of the elements. His method was a system of thought. It was known as natural philosophy. In his time, there were no scientists as we know them today who analyze and observe.


Aristotle also introduced the Earth System. Since rocks, (an Earth element), don't float in water (a water element), Earth is more central than Water. Continuing the rings out, we have Air, then Fire being the sun realm, and Ether. This is similar to how the Earth actually is. Starting with the Earth, water floats on the outside of it, then the air surrounds the Earth completely. Then the sun is next, and finally space, Ether, the unknown. This Earth System remained for a thousand years.
People have some of each element in them. Our bodies are the Earth element; our blood is the Water element; we are hot inside, that is the Fire element; we breathe Air; and our soul or consciousness is the Ether element.
In 300 CE, a new system of science started emerging. Many books on Alchemistry were banned in Greece. In 500, in Egypt, the church burned all the books.
Then in 750 CE, an Arabic scientist named Jabir made some statements. He said that the most important processes in chemistry are based on sulfur and mercury. The sulfur has a fire quality, and the mercury has a metallic quality. Much later, in 1500, a third quality was added, and these three were known as the Three Principles. The third quality was salt. It was not that salt had just been discovered, it was already being used in foods, but it was then recognized as a chemical element. The Three Principles were arranged in order of fire, mercury, salt. Fire is expansive, salt is contractive, and mercury is both, the balance. The fire also became associated with sulfur. Sulfur is very fiery. When melted it is deep amber like fire. It burns easily and for a long time. It is also talked about as the spirit of chemicals. Mercury can expand and contract very easily. That is why it is used in thermometers. It is the soul of chemistry. Salt is the physical part of chemistry, the body. When thought of as spirit, soul and body, these become terms. For example, one might say, "How can we separate the mercury of..." The scientist who added the third quality was named Paracelsus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim. He was a well-respected and also well-hated doctor. He was able to cure things no one else could. But he was also bombastic, which is where the word comes from. He always made a big scene out of things. He burned many old books, but he did it in a very public way, and by doing this, he made many enemies.
In 1600 the methods of modern chemistry were developed. At this time, the word "solution" was given another meaning. Before, a solution was only an answer to a problem. Now a solution is also a liquid we make in a test tube. If you take a problem - a question - it is a lot like a piece of metal. You can't do much with it. You can look at it from different angles. You can hit it, but it doesn't change much. But if you answer the question, it becomes dissolved. It becomes fluid. You can do more with both kinds of solutions.
Back to top




Conclusion

When we mixed a liquid and a liquid, we ended up with a liquid and a solid. We know that just by observation. What actually happens is this: With Potassium Chromate (KCrO4), adding water separates the ions, and we get Potassium (K) and Chromate (CrO4). The chemical doesn't change, just the form does. This process had already been done to get the liquids we started out with. Then when two of these liquids were mixed, the ions from each mixed up and recombined. In the first experiment, the Ba combined with the Cl2, giving us a liquid, and the K combined with the CrO4, giving us the solid. The process of combining liquids and forming a solid is called precipitation. The alchemist term for this is coagulate.
Back to top



We can deduce from the previous experiments that most nitrates are soluble. The following rules were discovered the same way: by doing many many experiments.


The air we breathe is roughly 80% nitrogen and 20% oxygen. How is it that we don't suffocate since there is four times as much nitrogen? The answer is solubility. Oxygen is much more soluble than nitrogen. So when we breathe, the oxygen goes into our blood easier than the nitrogen does.

Back to top



Back to top



The alchemists had certain days of the week associated with certain metals and also planets. Each planet had a feeling that went along with it. The reason the days of the week are not in sequential order, has to do with the number of hours in a day. To get from Thursday to Friday, start at Thursday and count up the list 24 places for the 24 hours. Since the remainder of 24 over 7 is 3, you can also just count up three.

	Moon	Monday	silver	Silver reflects our own experiences, and our mind
	Mercury	Wednesday	mercury	The quickest planet. A mercury mind can't stick on one subject for very long
	Venus	Friday	copper	Love and sympathy
	Sun	Sunday	gold	Our heart is our sun
	Mars	Tuesday	iron	Aggressiveness
	Jupiter	Thursday	tin	The largest planet. Organized and thinking.
	Saturn	Saturday	lead	Least reactive, least magnetic. Poisonous, protective and dense. But also has great wisdom.

Back to top



This is an experiment of extraction not using chemicals bought specially from a supplier. This is very much like the kind of experiments the alchemists did, but it is also a valid modern-day experiment. First we ground up lemon balm leaves. They were small leaves. They had a very strong smell that was released especially when broken. These were put in a flask. About half a bottle of brandy was added to the flask, just enough to completely cover up all the leaves. Then the bottle was sealed air-tight with a rubber seal that attached on top. This was so that none of the gases would escape when a reaction occurred.
Back to top



The name sulfur comes from the Latin word solferos, having to do with the sun. It is not a metal. In its solid form it is a crystal. We took some in the crystal form and put it in a beaker. We heated it over a flame, and it quickly melted. When it was liquid, it turned a deep amber color. It also smelled like rotten eggs. It was a thick liquid that didn't move easily. Then we turned the beaker over to pour it out. It moved very slowly down the side, then it came dripping out in a thin line. The stream of sulfur was glowing purple. From a distance, that's what it looked like: glowing. But from up closer, you could see that the stream was actually burning, and that the purple was the flame. It continued to burn and hold its heat for a very long time.
Back to top



Sodium does not occur in its raw form in nature. This is because it is so highly reactive. In its elemental form it is soft and flexible, and when sliced, it shines like a metal. It tarnishes within a few seconds. But it is most reactive to water as we demonstrated. We took a pea-sized chunk and put it in a large tub of water. It immediately started fizzing and was zipping around the tub, floating. It quickly diminished in size and disappeared. Then we took a slightly bigger chunk. It also started fizzing. We took a closer look to see the bubbles coming off it, and POP! It exploded in a flash of light! Very unexpected. It was a substantially loud pop considering the size of the chunk. Later, we took a chunk about the size of 5 quarters stacked on top of each other and brought it outside. We all stood back expecting an explosion. When it exploded, it flashed and made an enormous sound. My ears were ringing. It was much louder than anything I had expected from something that size. The volume of sound seemed to have increased exponentially from the smaller size piece.
Because of its explosive nature, elemental sodium does not occur naturally. However, Sodium chloride is the common table salt. The sodium ion has a positive charge. But when the sodium ion is combined with the chloride ion, the charge is canceled out because of the negative chloride.
Back to top



Certain metals conduct electricity better than others. Metals that don't conduct electricity as well have more resistance. With a tool, we measured the resistance of some metals and water. Sodium Sulfate was the best conductor. De-ionized water conducted the least amount of electricity. We can therefore conclude that materials with many ions conduct electricity better than those that have fewer or no ions.
Back to top



All material has qualities. One of the qualities of oxygen is that it is clear. Oxygen will keep this clear quality no matter what state it is in. Oxygen occurs in many different places in many different states. In your body, it occurs as water among other things. Water is H2O, and it is clear. It also occurs in the atmosphere as air. The air is clear. In the earth, it is solid. It is occurs as silicate, quartz crystals. They are clear. Glass is made from sand, which is a silicate.
The quality of sulfur is fire. It retains its heat and burns for a long time. It has a distinct smell, and its characteristic color is yellow.
Copper has a copper-color quality, but also a blue quality. In some non-metallic forms, copper is blue.
Back to top



Before the 20th century, it was thought that the atom was the smallest thing in existence. In 1900, JJ Thomson was credited with discovering the electron, much smaller than an atom. He made a tube and filled it with gas. There were two metal plates stuck inside with leads coming out. A power source was hooked up to the plates, making the one in back negatively charged and the one in front positively charged. As soon as the power is applied, a potential between the two plates is created. It is like the way lightning strikes the earth. A charge is built up between the clouds and the ground. When the charge is big enough, The electricity arcs. So in the tube, when enough of a charge is built up between the two metal plates, electrons start coming off the negative end (also called the cathode). These electrons travel straight through a small hole made in the positive metal plate (the anode). Today's application of this is in the television. The stream of electrons activate little specks of phosphorus on the inside of the screen. The stream is bent by electromagnets.
Starting then, the atom was believed to consist of some electrons and a positively charged cloud. This was called the plum pudding model. The electrons being the raisins in the pudding.
In 1911, Ernest Rutherford made a discovery contradicting this. He said that if the atom really is mostly empty space, if he were to shoot an alpha particle into a thin sheet of gold, it will always go through, and sometimes be slightly deflected because of the charge of electrons. He set up a device to continuously stream alpha particles. Around the whole thing was a film sensitive to electrons, so that he could see where the electrons were hitting. When he turned it on, most of the electrons were going through. But occasionally, some were being reflected. He concluded that there is something solid in atoms. He made a new model of the atom, and that is the one we use today. There are protons and neutrons that make up the mass of the atom. Protons are positively charged, and neutrons have no charge. Electrons by definition are negatively charged and they orbit the protons and neutrons at the speed of light in a random orbit. When an entire atom is negatively charged, there are more electrons than protons. When it is positively charged, there are more protons. If it has no charge, there are exactly the same number. A Hydrogen atom has one proton. It is positively charged. A helium atom has 2 protons and 2 neutrons. It is positively charged. Any atom can gain or lose electrons. This would make its charge change.
Back to top



Back to top



In this experiment, we tested zinc and copper for their levels of reactivity. In 4 test tubes, we placed a thin piece of copper (Cu). In 4 more, we placed a thin piece of zinc (Zn). We put 2.5 grams of lead nitrate (PbNO3) mixed with 50 mL water in one tube of copper and one of zinc. We did the same for Copper Nitrate (CuNO3) and Mercury Nitrate (HgNO3). In the last tubes, we put 15 mL of Sulfuric Acid with 50 mL water. We let these sit overnight and in the morning we observed the reactions.
Let's look at the example of adding Copper Nitrate solution to Zinc. We have a solid Zinc and a liquid Copper Nitrate. What we ended up with was blue and black crumbles. We recognize these colors as copper colors. So since the copper came out of the nitrate and went into a solid, the zinc must have combined with the nitrate.
Zn + CuNO3 --> Cu + ZnNO3
Solid metals don't have a charge, but metal ions in solution do. Nitrates are usually negative. Using these rules we can rewrite the formula adding symbols designating the charge of the ions.
Zn0 + Cu+ + NO3- --> Cu0 + Zn+ + NO3-
When we added the solution, one of the electrons came off the Zinc and went to the Copper. Since Zinc was previously neutral, and we removed a negative, it became positive. The reverse is true for the copper.
Notice that Zinc reacted with everything we put with it, and copper only with one. By doing many other experiments, scientists have come up with a table of reactiveness of metals. It is called the Electro-mechanical series.

Li
K
Ba
Ca
Na
Mg
Al
Zn
Cr
Fe
Sn
Pb
H
Cu
Hg
Ag
Pt
Au

Each element in its metal form is reactive only with the elements occurring below it in the list in their ion forms. Gold is reactive to nothing, and Lithium reacts to everything. Copper is relatively low on the list. Lead occurs above it, so Copper does not react with Lead Nitrate.
Back to top





An independent research project

We live in the three dimensions of space. We can move forward and backward, left and right, and up and down. Everything that we see has three dimensions. We live in a three dimensional universe. Everything that physically happens to us happens in the third dimension. When we walk forward, we're using the first dimension. When we turn left or right, we're using the second. When we climb stairs, we're using the third dimension.
A quick review of the dimensions just so we're talking in the same terms: Three dimensions is space; two dimensions is a plane; one dimension is a line; and zero dimensions means that there are no directions to point towards, so it would be a point. Each higher dimension adds a direction perpendicular to all the directions of the previous dimension. The second dimension is perpendicular to all the directions of the first dimension. If you take a point and pull it apart from itself, you end up with two points. Connect them and you get a line. If you take a line segment, and pull it out from itself in a direction perpendicular to the line, then you have two parallel lines. Connect the ends and you get a square. A square has two dimensions. Then if you take the square, and pull it out from itself in a direction perpendicular to all the directions of the square, then you get parallel planes. When you connect them, you get a cube. A cube has three dimensions. Since we live in a three-dimensional world, and a cube is three dimensional, that's as far as we can go. We will return to this subject later.
Let us now step down into a two-dimensional universe. We will create this universe for purposes of discussion. I am not saying that this universe actually exists. This entire universe that we will create has only two dimensions. Imagine this universe as if it were on a sheet of paper. You are looking at the paper so that it is vertical, and you see its edge. Looking at it this way, the people in this universe can move up and down, and forward and backward. This universe does not consist of "space", because we already defined space as having three dimensions. This universe is a plane.
Imagine a large circle on the paper. This circle will provide a surface for the people of this universe to walk on. Gravity will pull towards the center of this circle. It is similar to our Earth. Many two-dimensional people live on this circle. We will talk about one in particular named Lisa. Lisa walks along the edge of the circle, and is pulled towards the center of it. For Lisa, down is towards the center of the circle, and up is away from the center. When Lisa sees one of her friends, she sees only one side of them. In order for her to see the other side, her friend would have to turn upside-down. If we draw the people as stick figures, Lisa would not see them as stick figures. She would see them as a line with different colors for different parts of their bodies. To get a better idea of what Lisa sees, take a sheet of paper and turn it so that you are looking straight at the edge of it. You see a line. This is similar to what Lisa sees. But everything she sees is in this line. She doesn't know of anything else besides this line, so to her it wouldn't look like a "line." It would be her entire field of vision. She would see everything this way. She would be able to tell if one object is behind another, because of the shades of color objects have. Since Lisa's paper is vertical, she cannot move left or right. That movement would require another dimension. But she does not feel restricted because she doesn't even know that there is a higher dimension that she could move in.
Everything in Lisa's daily life happens in the second dimension. She eats a two-dimensional breakfast, she sleeps on a two-dimensional bed, she works at a two-dimensional office building. She is perfectly happy moving forward and backward and up and down. That is all she needs to do to live her life. "What is the need for a higher dimension than mine? What good would it do?" Because she doesn't experience the third dimension, she has a hard time imagining it. She would have to imagine a direction perpendicular to those she moves in. If all her memories and experiences are based on her movements in the second dimension, how could she imagine something outside of that? The third dimension is completely incomprehensible to her.
So take the piece of paper that Lisa is on, and bend it. Can she feel this bend? No, because she feels things in the second dimension. Does the surface of the paper change when it is bent? No. The area is still the same as it was when it wasn't bent. You can do anything you want to the paper short of ripping it, and the surface doesn't change. Lisa couldn't tell if the paper was bent any which way. She could still get around in her two dimensions.
Since we can bend the plane Lisa lives on, imagine this plane is the surface of a sphere. A sphere is three-dimensional, but it has a surface, and surfaces are two-dimensional. If it were possible for Lisa to leave her circle and fly, she could leave her planet going straight up and always go straight, and end up flying towards the other side of her planet. This is just the same as when we travel on the earth. If we were to start walking in a straight line, we would end up back where we started, ignoring the fact that there are large bodies of water in the way. The surface of a sphere is not infinite, but it also does not have an end. No matter which way you go on the surface, you will never come to a point where you can't keep going.
We have managed to make Lisa's universe continuous. No boundaries, but not infinite. This is comforting because who would want to live in a universe that goes on forever? A never-ending universe with an infinite number of stars in it is a bit overwhelming. But it also doesn't make sense for the universe to have an end. Once we got to this supposed end, what would keep us from going further? That is why this model is nice. Lisa's universe does not come to an unexplainable end, and it does not go on forever. It has a definite measurable area. We made her universe continuous by curving her plane on a sphere. We curved her plane in the third dimension, not the second. It took the third dimension, a higher dimension, one that she doesn't even know, to curve her plane.
Take a look at Lisa's universe on the paper from the surface, not from the edge. Say she is looking at her friend. She can see the front of her friend only. She can't see the back of her friend. But we looking at her can see her friend's entire outline. We can even see what is inside her friend. We in the third dimension can see inside two-dimensional things. We can see the whole two dimensional universe laid out all at once.
I have kept all the examples so far in three dimensions or less so that you can easily visualize them. Just as Lisa can only visualize things that have two dimensions or less, we can only visualize things that have three dimensions or less. But now it is time to take a peek at the fourth dimension. We will be using Lisa's universe as a model for our universe, plus one dimension.
As we already stated, each higher dimension adds a direction perpendicular to all the directions of the previous dimension. So we have to imagine a direction that doesn't point in any of the directions we know. This is a bit confusing. It is extremely difficult to imagine a direction that is not any of the ones we can see. "What would it look like?" is not an appropriate question. It wouldn't "look" like anything. Lisa could try to imagine the third dimension. She would have her up arrow and her forward arrow. But where else could she point? The third arrow would have to stick out of her paper. If it is sticking out, she can't see it. It is an elementary fact to us that there is a third dimension. We could see this arrow because we are three-dimensional, but Lisa couldn't.
So now we can take this model and apply it to our universe. If you imagine three arrows, one for each of our dimensions, pointing up, forwards and right, then the fourth arrow would not be able to point anywhere. Anywhere it pointed would be pointing some direction of the third dimension. In order for it to point towards the fourth dimension, it would be invisible to us.
We can try to continue our pattern of squares that we explored earlier into the fourth dimension. First we pulled a point away from itself and got a line. We pulled the line away from itself and made a square. Then we pulled the square away from itself in a direction perpendicular to those of the square and made a cube. Imagine if we take the cube and pull it out from itself in a direction perpendicular to all three dimensions of the cube. This sounds impossible. In a way it is. It's impossible in three-dimensional space. But in four-dimensional space, it is possible, just like it was possible to pull a two-dimensional square out of itself in three-dimensional space. Now we have a four-dimensional cube, which, for lack of a word in the English language, we will call a hypercube.
To get a better idea of what a hypercube looks like, we can follow some patterns: A line (1d) has two points (0d) at the ends. A square (2d) has four lines (1d) on its edges. A cube (3d) has six squares (2d) on its surface. So following this sequence, (2,4,6), a hypercube (4d) has eight cubes (3d) on its surface. Another pattern to follow is this: a line has two points, a square has four points, a cube has eight points, so, a hypercube must have sixteen points.
Notice when I drew the cube on this paper, I wasn't really drawing it in three dimensions. I was using only the two that were available on the paper. But in your mind, you saw a cube, not two squares and some diagonal lines. Just as it was possible to draw a three-dimensional object in two dimensions, it is possible to draw a four-dimensional object in two dimensions. We start out with the representation of a cube, and pull it down and right to form a sort of octagon figure. But unfortunately for us, we can comprehend only the two or three-dimensionality of it. If a four-dimensional person took a look at it, they would recognize it as one of their solids.
The reason this looks like an octagon with some pretty designs in the middle and not a four-dimensional hypercube, is because your brain cannot comprehend it that way. Look at the cube. You see it as a cube. But look at it again, this time ignoring any clues that it represents a three-dimensional object. Look at only the lines. Notice the patterns they create. There is a little square in the middle. There are diagonal lines coming off opposite corners, and the other opposite corners are extended. When you look at it this way, and then look at the hypercube, you see similar patterns. Notice, the little square in the cube does not actually exist in a three-dimensional cube. It exists on the paper because of the angle we are looking at it. Similarly, the pattern in the middle of the hypercube does not actually exist, we see it because we are looking at it from a certain angle.
Now that we understand a little more about the fourth dimension, we can look at the model of Lisa's universe to get an idea about ours. We will take the concepts we explored in Lisa's two-dimensional universe, and apply them to the three-dimensional universe that we live in. We said her flat universe was curved around a sphere. This is a good explanation for a universe that isn't infinite but also has no boundaries. There is no way to curve a two-dimensional surface in the second dimension, so we curved it in the third. We can apply this same idea to our three-dimensional space.
Our universe, the one we live in, is curved around a four-dimensional sphere, a hypersphere. We can't feel the curve because we feel only three dimensions. Just as Lisa could go straight up and always go up and she would come back around to her planet, we can do the same. If we were to take a spaceship, with enough fuel, and fly straight up, always going up, we would come back to where we came from. Our space is essentially the surface of a hypersphere. No matter where you go in space, you will never find an end, and yet it is not infinitely huge. Curved space is a difficult concept to grasp. It is impossible to see, but not impossible to understand.
Back to top