Chemistry Definitions/Vocabulary
    Matter - anything that has both mass and volume.
    Mass - the amount of material that any substance contains.
    Volume - the amount of space that an object occupies.
    Element - an element is a substance that cannot be further broken down by normal chemical means.
    Atom - an atom is the smallest possible part of an element that still contains all of the properties of that element.
    Electrons - electrons are negatively charged particles that move around the Nucleus of an atom.
    Protons - protons are positively charged particles that help make up the Nucleus of an atom.
    Neutrons - neutrons carry no charge and make up the other part of the Nucleus of an atom.
    Isotopes - two or more atoms of the same chemical element with different mass numbers.

Bonding types (Basic summary, scroll down for more info):
    1. Ionic Bonding - The process of combining two atoms by having one give up an electron, and one borrowing an electron from the other atom.

    2. Covalent Bonding - The process of combining two atoms by having both atoms share electrons and having the highest energy field become stable.

Overview

    The Earth is made of layers of material.  What is this material composed of? Matter.  Matter is any substance that has both mass and volume. Mass would be the material in an object, substance, etc.  Mass is not the same as weight, however, because weight is affected entirely by gravity, but gravity does not affect mass at all.  Volume is the amount of space that is occupied by an object.

    Elements completely make up matter.  (For a picture of the periodic table of the elements, click here).  They are the most basic particles.  An element is a substance that cannot be further broken down by normal chemical means.  Two examples of elements found in our atmosphere would be Oxygen (O) and Nitrogen (N).  A few examples of metallic elements would be gold, silver, and iron.  Scientists have determined that there are at lest 114 elements.

    Elements are made up of tiny particles called Atoms.  An atom is the smallest possible piece of an element that still has all of the properties of that element.  Atoms are very small, and models of them have greatly changed over the years.  Electrons are small charged particles that surround the nucleus and create an energy field around it.  An electron's charge is negative.  Protons, however, have a positive charge that counteracts the negative charge of the electron.  Protons also help make up the structure of the nucleus.  Neutrons are small particles that have no positive or negative charge and, like protons, help give the nucleus it's structure.

    Atomic Number is simply the number of protons in an atom.  The Mass Number of an element gives the average number of protons and neutrons in an element.  To find the number of neutrons, simply subtract the number of protons in the element (atomic number) from the average number of protons and neutrons in the element (mass number), and you will get the number of neutrons that the element contains.

    Isotopes are two or more atoms of the same chemical element with different mass numbers.  An Ion is an atom with a positive or negative charge. This means that in an atom, there would be either more protons or more electrons, offsetting the balance in the charge.  Visit the Rocks section of our site to see how things tie together a bit.

Bonding

    When an element or particle combine, there are two ways for it to do it.  These two ways are Ionic or covalent bonding.  Ionic Bonding (For an image, Click Here) is when two atoms join by having one atom lose an electron in its outer energy level, and having one atom gain an electron, to make its outer energy level become stable (Ex. NaCl, or Sodium Chloride).  With sodium and chloride, the sodium atom contains one electron in it's outer energy level.  The chloride atom, however, contains seven electrons in it's outer energy level.  Therefore, the chloride atom needs one more electron in it's outer energy level to become stable.  The sodium atom could either lose one electron in it's outer energy level, or it could borrow seven electrons from another element to become stable.  Since the sodium atom only has one extra, it gives the chloride atom the electron, and both atoms are bonded and are both stable. One other type of bonding is Covalent Bonding (For an image, Click Here), where two atoms join by having both atoms share electrons in the outer energy level, making both of their outer energy levels chemically stable (Ex.  H2O, or water).  In water, also known as H2O, there are two hydrogen atoms and a oxygen atom.  Since the two hydrogen atoms are looking to become stable, they both need one more electron in their outer energy levels to become stable, since the first energy level can only have two electrons before going into another energy level.  Since they BOTH must become stable, they can share each other's electrons (since they both originally have one) and create a stable covalent bond with two shared electrons in each other's 1st energy levels.