Chemistry: A Volatile History Chemistry: A Volatile History Chemistry: A Volatile History is a 2010 BBC documentary on the history of chemistry presented by Jim Al-Khalili. It was nominated for the 2010 British Academy Television Awards in the category Specialist Factual. Only in the last 200 years have we known what an element is – a substance that cannot be broken down further by chemical reaction. The Ancient Greeks, with no way of breaking open substances, could only base their ideas of the elements on what they could see: Earth, Fire, Water and Air. In the 16th century alchemists were busy trying to turn
Comparison of chemistry and physics experimental techniques caught up. In chemistry, the role of theory historically has been a retrospective one, summarizing experimental data and predicting the outcome of similar experiments. However, with the increasing power of computational methods in chemistry, it has become possible to predict whether a hypothetical compound is stable or not before experimental data is available. In a typical undergraduate program for physics majors, required courses are in the sub-disciplines of physics, with additional required courses in mathematics. Because much of the insight of physics is described by differential equations relating matter, space, and time (for example Newton's law of motion