Chemistry Module 1, Chemistry and You

The Origins of Chemistry: Where It All Began 
The earliest attempts to explain natural phenomena led to fanciful inventions – to
myths and fantasies – but not to understanding.
Around 600 B.C., a group of Greek philosophers became dissatisfied with these
myths. Stimulated by social and cultural changes as well as curiosity, they began to ask
questions about the world around them. They were able to discover basic truths of nature
by thinking things through experiments. The years between 600 B.C. and 400 B.C. are
called the “Golden Age of Philosophy”.
Some of the Greek philosophers believed they could find a single substance from

which everything else was made. Thales believed that it was water and Anaximenes
thought it was air. Empedocles’ idea was that the universe is made of four elements namely
earth, air, fire and water.
The period from 440 B.C and 420 B.C. was known as the age of atomism when
Leucippus and Democritus believed that matter was made of smallest particle which they
called atom, a particle that could not be seen. Two thousand years later scientists proved
that this idea was true.

Chemistry Module 1, Chemistry and You