Chapter 2
The Components of Matter
The Early History of Chemistry
Fundamental Chemical Laws
These laws come from careful observations based in the best possible
accuracy in the scientists measurement for the time they were performed.
There is still a significant amount of serendipity involved!
1) Law of conservation of mass – in a chemical process
mass is neither created nor destroyed. (Lavoisier ~ 1780’s,
first modern textbook on chemistry, Elementary treatise On
Chemistry, 1789)
2) Law of definite proportion – a given compound always
contains exactly the same proportion of elements by mass.
(Proust ~ early 1800’s)
3) Law of multiple proportions – when two elements form
a series of compounds, the ratios of the masses of the second
element that combine with one gram of the first element can
always be reduced to small whole numbers. (Dalton ~ early
1800’s)
