1: Atoms, Molecules, and Ions

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According to convention there is a sweet and a bitter, a hot and a cold, and according to convention there is order. In truth there are atoms and a void. -Democritus (400 B.C.)

In the trial scene in Alice in Wonderland, the White Rabbit, asked to read a document adduced as evidence, asks, "Where shall I begin, please your Majesty?" The answer is straightforward: "Begin at the beginning, and go on till you come to the end: then stop." But we shall begin in the middle, with a description of what atoms and molecules are like, before saying anything about how we know that atoms exist. When we examine the evidence for atomic and molecular structure in later chapters, you will have at least an idea of the goal of the effort. The result, we hope, will be to make this textbook more comprehensible than most of Lewis Carroll's books. (The White Rabbit's evidence did not fare very well: "If any one of them can explain it," said Alice, "I'll give him sixpence. I don't believe there's an atom of meaning in it."