Definitions of an Element…

Definitions of an Element…

Aristotle

Definitions of an Element…

300 B.C.E. – “one of those simple bodies into which other bodies can be decomposed and which itself is not capable of being divided into others”.

And then…

Dum……….

Dum Dum Dum ……….Dum!

Robert Boyle

Definitions of an Element…

1661 – “I now mean by elements…certain primitive and simple, or perfectly unmingled bodies; which not being made of any other bodies, or of one another, are the ingredients of which all those called perfectly mixt bodies are immediately compounded, and into which they are ultimately resolved”.

Antoine Laurent& Marie - AnneLavoisier

Definitions of an Element…

1789 – “We cannot be sure that what we now regard as an element is in fact one. All we can say is that such a substance is the present limit of chemical analysis and cannot be split up further, so far as we know at present.”

Definitions of an Element…

Modern definition – a pure substance that cannot be separated into simpler substances by physical or chemical means