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First Book of Qualitative Chemistry for Studies of Water Solution and Mass Action
First Book of Qualitative Chemistry for Studies of Water Solution and Mass Action Author:Albert Benjamin Prescott General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1902 Original Publisher: D. Van Nostrand Co. Subjects: Chemistry, Analytic Science / Chemistry / General Science / Chemistry / Analytic Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you b... more »uy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: 4. Chemical Notation. -- The alphabet of the chemical method of writing is made up of certain symbols representing the elements. These not only serve as abbreviations for the names of the elements, but they are also used to express fixed relative quantities. Each symbol represents the atomic weight of the element taken in some unit of weight -- grams, ounces or tons indifferently. Two symbols written side by side indicate a union of the elements in question, and as union takes place in a ratio represented by simple multiples of the equivalent and therefore also of the atomic weights, we can by multiplying our symbols express in this way the quantitative composition of all possible compounds. The formula for sodium carbonate, Na2CO3, expresses the fact that it is a compound from which sodium, carbon and oxygen may be obtained in quantities which are to one another respectively as twice the atomic weight of sodium, the atomic weight of carbon, and three times the atomic weight of oxygen, the figure to the right below the line multiplying that symbol (or group of symbols enclosed in parenthesis) which it immediately follows. Forty-six grams of sodium, twelve grams of carbon, and forty-eight grams of oxygen will therefore give 106 grams of sodium carbonate, and the composition per cent is: 43.4 sodium, 11.3 carbon, 45.3 oxygen. 5. The Equation. -- The chemical equation indicates the formation of certain products from certain reacting substances. It shows the relative quanti...« less