Simple Molecules

Invisible Objects:
Generally molecules are composed of atoms which are different in kind. For example, the molecule of water has two different atoms, the oxygen atom and the hydrogen atoms; alcohol has three different kinds of atoms, oxygen, hydrogen, and carbon. Sometimes, however, molecules are composed of a group of atoms all of which are alike. Now there are but seventy or eighty different kinds of atoms, and hence there can be but seventy or eighty different substances whose molecules are composed of atoms which are alike. When the atoms comprising a molecule are all alike, the substance is called an element, and is said to be a simple substance. Throughout the length and breadth of this vast world of ours there are only about eighty known elements. An element is the simplest substance conceivable, because it has not been separated into anything simpler. Water is a compound substance. It can be separated into oxygen and hydrogen.

Gold, silver, and lead are examples of elements, and water, alcohol, cider, sand, and marble are complex substances, or compounds, as we are apt to call them. Everything, no matter what its size or shape or character, is formed from the various combinations into molecules of a few simple atoms, of which there exist about eighty known different kinds. But few of the eighty known elements play an important part in our everyday life. We have seen in an earlier experiment that twice as much hydrogen as oxygen can be obtained from water. Two atoms of the element hydrogen unite with one atom of the element oxygen to make one molecule of water. In symbols we express this H₂O. A group of symbols, such as this, expressing a molecule of a compound is called a formula. NaCl is the formula for sodium chloride, which is the chemical name of common salt.