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338 BCE
The classical elements
Greeks gave us the idea of atoms and thought the elements were fire, water, air and earth
They classified the elements on whether they were hot or cold and whether they were wet or dry. Fire and earth were dry.
Air and water were wet.
Fire and air were hot.
Earth and water were cold. -
1566
The alchemists
According to alchemests There are four common elements and each has at its center another deeper element the archetype which makes it what it is. Their elements are the same as the classical elements; fire, water, earth and air and they still believed in the hot, cold, dry, wet classifications -
Robert boyle
Robert Boyle thought beyond the classical four elements of earth, air, fire, and water and the three elements of salt, sulfur, and mercury. He is known as the first modern alchemist. He also discovered that the volume of a gas decreases with increasing pressure and vice versa. -
John dalton
He discovered weights for elements using a system to figure what each one was made of. If there are two elements that can combine, it will be in a sequence. The first will have one atom of element A and one of Element B then one atom of A and two atoms of B; then two atoms of A and one of B and so on. He also believed that particles in different gases had different volumes and surrounding atoms, this is why gases in the atmosphere would not just be on one another like layers, but in motion.
