Basic Medical Chemistry

Chemistry has to do with matter, mass and weight. All things, living and nonliving are composed of matter, which is a “thing” that occupies some form of space and has some amount of mass. Mass, is the amount of matter in an object, and weight identifies the gravitational pull that acts upon that given object… are we confused yet?

Elements and their atoms

Lets start at the beginning of chemistry… lets take an element (the most basic type of matter with individually unique chemical properties). An element is made up of atoms which are of the same atoms. An atom is an indivisible particle of an element.

But wait, an atom gets smaller…

An atom is made up of three small “subatomic” particles. These include: an electron, which has a negative charge, a proton which has a positive charge and neutron, which has no electrical charge at all. Both protons and neutrons join together to form the nucleus (in shell of an atom). Electrons then move around the nucleus.