7. A Chemical Change.—Cannot this smallest particle of sugar, the molecule, be separated into still smaller particles of something else? May it not be a compound body, and will not some force separate it into two or more substances? The next experiment will answer the question.
Experiment 5.—Take the sugar solution saved from Experiment 4, and add slowly 4 cc.of strong sulphuric acid. Note any change of color, also the heat of the t.t. Add more acid if needed.
A substance entirely different in color and properties has been formed. Now either the sugar, the acid, or the water has undergone a chemical change. It is, in fact, the sugar. But the molecule is the smallest particle of sugar possible. The acid must have either added something to the sugar molecules, or subtracted something from them. It was the latter. Here, then, is a force entirely different from the one which tends to reduce masses to molecules. The molecule has the same properties as the mass. Only a physical force was used in dissolving the sugar, and no heat was liberated. The acid has changed the sugar into a black mass, in fact into charcoal or carbon, and water; and heat has been produced. A chemical change has been brought about.
From this we see that molecules are not the ultimate divisions of matter. The smallest sugar particles are made up of still smaller particles of other things which do not resemble sugar, as a word is composed of letters which alone do not resemble the word. But can the charcoal itself be resolved into other substances, and these into still others, and so on? Carbon is one of the substances from which nothing else has been obtained. There are about seventy others which have not been resolved. These are called elements; and out of them are built all the compounds— mineral, vegetable, and animal—which we know.
8. An element is a chemically indivisible substance, or one from which nothing else can be extracted.
A compound is a substance which is made up of elements united in exact proportions by a force called chemism, or chemical affinity.
A mixture is composed of two or more elements or compounds blended together, but not held by any chemical attraction.
To which of these three classes does sugar belong? Carbon? The solution of sugar in water?
Carbon is an element; we call its smallest particle an atom.
An atom is the smallest particle of an element that can enter into combination. Atoms are indivisible and usually do not exist alone. Both elements and compounds have molecules.