What are the relationships between matter, atoms and elements?

What is Chemistry?
 The scientific study of the composition, structure,
and properties of matter and the changes that
matter undergoes.

What does that mean?

That Chemistry is the study of what things are
made of and how you can combine things
together.

Everything, and I do mean everything, that
has mass and volume (you know what those
are right!) is made of matter.

Matter: anything that has mass and takes up
space.

So, your notes are made of matter. The
breath you are taking (took?) is made of
matter and you are made of matter.

Mater is made up of hundreds of millions or
billions or even trillions of atoms. It all
depends on the density of the matter.

Atoms: the smallest unit of an element that
maintains the properties of that element.

Element: a substance that cannot be
separated into simpler substances by
chemical means.

Many of the things you use every day are
made up of different elements. Your pencil
has graphite for you to write with. It is a form
of carbon, similar to those found in a
diamond. Take some graphite, a little
pressure (more like a LOT) add some heat
(again, a LOT) and poof, you have a diamond!

If you combine two or more elements together
you create a compound!

Compound: a substance made of atoms of two
or more different elements that are chemically
combined.

When elements form compounds, these
compounds will have different properties than
the elements that make it up.

When atoms combined together to form all
the different compounds, they create
molecules.

Molecule:
the smallest unit of a substance
that keeps all the physical and chemical
properties of that substance.

When molecules are created, say a molecule of
water, the number of atoms and the type of
atoms, will ALWAYS be the same in EVERY
molecule. Molecules can be made up of different
types of atoms or the same type of atom.

The atoms that go into a molecule are like a
recipe, to get what you want, you need to put in
the correct ingredients in the right amounts.

Just like the recipes you have at home are
written down (somewhere right?), molecules
have a written recipe.

The Chemical Formula is the written recipe for
the molecule you are trying to make, or already
have.

Chemical Formula: A combination of chemical
symbols and numbers to represent a substance.
H2O
C6H12O6
NaCl
CO2
NH3
H3C6H5O7

In science, you will learn that MANY words you
know now will have a different meaning from what
you have learned.

One of these is the word pure. In science we use it
when referring to some substance, that is made up
of all one type of atom or molecule.

Pure Substance: a sample of matter, either a
single element or a single molecule, that has
definite chemical or physical properties.

So that means any thing that has two or more
different types of molecules, is not a pure
substance.

Mixture: a combination of two or more
substances that are not chemically combined.

So pure grape juice, is not pure when we are
using science terms!