Question

structure of matter
read and annotate the article below
early ideas of atoms
people have always wondered what makes up the matter that surrounds us. people observe phenomena, like
the shocks that occur when we build up static or the changes that happen when a material is heated, and we
ask why it is happening. for example, the maya in central america noticed that some plants had unique
properties when heated together. they purified these substances and figured out how to make vulcanized
rubber - 3,000 years before this process was patented in the united states! during the 8th century in the
middle east, muslim scholars learned how to purify metals and combine substances. they called this al - kimia,
which eventually spread to medieval europe as alchemy. even ancient greek philosophers wondered about
what makes up matter. a philosopher named democritus (460 - 370 bce) thought that matter was made up
of tiny particles, but democritus did not do experiments to test this. the philosophers gave us the english
word for a particle of matter that we still use today: the atom. this idea about atoms being the smallest
particles of matter was used for thousands of years to help explain many outcomes of chemical reactions.
is static electricity made of atoms?
however, there were some phenomena that atoms alone could not explain. like you, scientists in the 18th
century were confused by what makes up static electricity. they identified three ways that matter could
behave when static was produced:

1. matter could be attracted to other matter.
2. matter could be repelled by other matter.
3. matter could just \hang out\ without being attracted or repelled.

to help categorize these patterns, scientists started referring to matter as having either a positive or negative
charge, and they called matter with no charge neutral. but what was changing about the matter to produce
positive or negative charge? this was a mystery until the 20th century.
text chunk 1: write the main idea in your own words or images. (if you are not sure, reread and annotate.)

Explanation:

The text discusses early ideas about atoms, how different civilizations (Maya, Muslim scholars, ancient Greeks) had concepts related to matter's composition. It also mentions the confusion in the 18th century about what makes up static electricity and how scientists categorized matter's behavior (attraction, repulsion, neutral) by introducing charge concepts.

Answer:

The main idea is that throughout history, people have wondered about the composition of matter. Early concepts included atoms (from Democritus), and in the 18th century, scientists were confused about static electricity's makeup. They categorized matter's behavior (attraction, repulsion, neutral) by introducing charge (positive, negative, neutral) concepts, but the cause of charge was a mystery until the 20th century.