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=Alchemy=

Alchemy is generally defined as an enchantment or transformation of one matter to another, and is the predecessor of modern chemisty. It began its spread and influence in Egypt about 5,000 B.C. and through Europe in about 1200 A.D., but the practice of alchemy had stopped by the 1800s. =History=

Alchemy began with the belief (starting with Aristotle) that instead of there being 112 chemical elements like today, there are only four elements: fire, air, earth, and water. Each of these elements has different combination of four properties, hot, dry, cold, and moist. For example, whereas earth is cold and dry, air would be hot and moist. Therefore, instead of there being many elements and many different compounds and substances, there existed only layers of the four elements, leading to the belief that these layers could be manipulated to make any desired substance. At first, the goal of alchemy was to transmutate, or change, a metal into gold. As we know today, none of the alchemists made true gold. However, they did make many more great discoveries. They discovered 3 main types of acids; hydrochloric, nitric and sulfuric. As alchemy spread from place to place, its goal was shifted. Sometimes, the alchemists were looking for the elixir of life, apparently capable of making the person who drinks it live forever. =European Alchemy=

Alchemy was finally introduced into Europe during the beginning of the Renaissance Period and at around the time of the 1st Crusade. It was brought to Spain by the Moors of Africa and it spread from there on out into the rest of Europe. The general goal of the science stayed the same for quite a while; to make gold from other common metals, especially lead. But, some alchemists were looking for a substance called the elixir of life. If anyone drank this so called elixir, they would live forever. However, in the 14th century, there was a lot of speculation against the alchemists. There were many people who would laim to make gold or silver in order to scam rich people into giving them money. For example, they would take a silver metal and melt it and add a little bit of a second metal, to make it a gold color. This class turns a penny into "gold", just like the fake gold alchemists made. media type="youtube" key="WnW22_rtfig&hl=en&fs=1" height="344" width="425" Due to this, British Parliament and the Pope passed laws forbidding the practice of alchemy, by punishment of death. However, alchemy still existed under the law and would continue for a long period of time. =Important European Alchemists=

Roger Bacon was born in 1214 and was very well educated. He went to Oxford and studied mathematics, medicine and later became interested in chemistry and astronomy. Roger made very few revolutionary discoveries, but he was a big supporter of a formal way of conducting research. (the scientific method). Bacon is also important because he was the first well known English alchemist and would pave the way for many to follow.  Paraclesus was another vey important person in the history of alchemy. He was touht at an early age things such as medicine and even some alchemy by his father. He took up after his father and became a surgeon and studied medicine and alchemy. He transformed the objective of alchemy from making gold to using it to find medicinal cures for diseases. People still tried to make gold, but others after him made many medical advances, making Paraclesus very important in the medical field as well. =Chemistry Involved= Alchemists had very convincing ways of tricking people into thinking they made gold by using chemistry. For example, a gold coin would be coated with mercury to hide its true gold nature. Then, the alchemist would put the coin in an acid which would dissolve away the mercury and leave a gold coin. The alchemist didn't really make gold, but other people thought he had. There were also ways of faking gold transmutation where the alchemist would mix a gold powder with another metal, such as antimony, without telling people. Then, the alchemist would heat them and seperate the two metals, which makes it seem like gold was produced. =Significance= Alchemy had a huge impact on modern chemistry, giving way to discoveries like hydrochloric, sulfuric, and nitric acids, as well as the uniform and systematic experiment. In addition, it gave way to the idea of nuclear transmutation, the ability to convert some elements into others (such as nitrogen into oxygen via artificial distingtegration as showed by Ernest Rutherford) with particle accelerators or nuclear reactors. =Sources= http://www.nlm.nih.gov/exhibition/paracelsus/paracelsus_2.html http://www.alchemylab.com/history_of_alchemy.htm#European%20Alchemy http://www.crystalinks.com/alchemy.html [|http://www.crystalinks.com/bacon.htm] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alchemy http://books.google.com/books?id=wsm8r2oXYp4C&pg=PA529&lpg=PA529&dq=the+process+of+making+fake+gold+alchemy&source=web&ots=cwbVEDinWG&sig=DzjSgX_5of9lH-juSYyN-PCwOqE&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=8&ct=result#PPA529,M1 Images provided by http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aristotle http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Bacon