Language of chemistry

The growth of a child, the production of polymers from petroleum, and the digestion of food are all the outcome of chemical reactions, processes by which one or more substances are converted into other substances. This type of process is a chemical change. The starting materials are called the reactants and the substances formed are called the products. The chemicals available in a laboratory are called reagents. In this section, we see how to use the symbolic language of chemistry to describe chemical reactions. 

The objective of this chapter is to provide a basis for some understanding of chemistry and the chemical industry. Segments and characteristics of the industry together with important events in chemical history are briefly presented. The language of chemistry is introduced and important chemical terms are defined. 

A major part in the language of chemistry is in learning the names of the chemicals (nomenclature). Many chemicals, particularly the more common ones, are known by several different names. For example, the chemical CH3CH2OH has the systematic name ethanol. The publication Chemical Abstracts (American Chemical Society) also uses the name ethanol. The historical or common name is ethyl alcohol or grain alcohol. A nickname for it is just alcohol, and there are various tradenames, depending on the manufacturer. For example, the Fastman Company sells it under the name of Tecsol . Fven trained chemists have trouble with nomenclature, which makes the use of and need for written chemical formulae common among chemists. 

The language of chemistry is understood better when the symbols of the more common elements are known, such as those shown on the following page. Use of these symbols provides a convenient shorthand method for chemists to represent molecular formulae. In these formulae, the subscript number following the atomic symbol denotes how many atoms of that element are in the molecule, for example, the formula for water is H2O, which means each molecule of water contains two atoms of hydrogen (symbol H) and one atom of oxygen (symbol O). 

Of these sources, Kirk-Othmer s Encyclopedia of Chemical Technology is particularly recommended for questions on chemistry and on end uses. For information on properties and on toxicity and handling hazards, Patty s Industrial Hygiene, Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS), and the Aldrich catalog are very nseful. Questions on industrial chemistry should be directed to Ullman s Encyclopedia of Industrial Chemistry, and the texts by Chenier, Heaton, and White. Hawley s Condensed Chemical Dictionary is valuable as a source for dehnitions of the terms (language) of chemistry. 

Crosland, M. P. (1962). Historical Studies in the Language of Chemistry. London Heinemann. 

Anderson, Wilda C. Between the library and the laboratory the language of chemistry in eighteenth-century France.. ... 

Crosland, Maurice P. "Historical studies in the language of chemistry." PhD thesis, University College, London, 1959. 

It is futile to hope for physicists to apply their modern views to chemical phenomena, or even expect these concepts to emerge in user-friendly form. It is incumbent on the chemists themselves to incorporate the ideas of advanced quantum mechanics, relativity and field theory into the canon of chemistry. This procedure requires recasting of the formalisms in different terms into the language of chemistry. 

On Macquer s earlier rhetorical consolidations of chemistry as an authoritative and philosophical discipline, see Wilda Anderson, Between the Library and the Laboratory The Language of Chemistry in Eighteenth-Century France (Baltimore Johns Hopkins University Press, 1984). 

Findings from computer-based analyses of the language of chemistry A useful principle (i.e., rule of thumb) with broad applications... 

Because the new language incorporated an anti-phlogiston outlook, the book had many detractors. Nevertheless, the nomenclature found rapid acceptance among chemists, who realized that it was far superior to the chaotic assemblage of names used before. Today, Lavoisier s and Guyton s system of nomenclature is still the international language of chemistry. 

Dalton presented his atomic theory in his bookyl New System of Chemical Philosophy, the first and crucial part of which was published in 1808. His pictures of atoms and molecules provide a unification of the micro-world and the macro-world of chemistry they show at once what we can observe (for example, hydrogen and oxygen combining to make water) and what we cannot the union of real, tangible atoms. Historian of chemistry William Brock says that Dalton s symbols encouraged people to acquire a faith in the reality of chemical atoms and enabled chemists to visualize relatively complex chemical reactions. .. Between them, Lavoisier and Dalton completed a revolution in the language of chemistry. ... 

In everyday language, the word salt implies sodium chloride, NaCl, table salt. In the language of chemistry, however, salt is a general term meaning any ionic compound formed from the reaction between an acid and a base. Hydrogen chloride and sodium hydroxide, for example, react to produce the salt sodium chloride and water ... 

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