The nature of the world around us has been the subject of interest and speculation for thousands of years. The original chemistry concerned itself with observing and compiling data on the many substances that could be found free in nature or prepared by simple procedures such as heating. People working with such substances were known as alchemists (from the Arabic 'al quimia') and although much time and effort was put into the search for the philosopher's stone, there was also a great deal of useful information gathered.

The theories underlying the structure of matter waited until the eighteenth century when John Dalton made observations regarding the indivisible particles of matter, which he called atoms.

This section deals with the fundamental ideas needed to understand the nature of chemistry.