How may a substance be tested to determine whether or not it is an element

Always remember that a compound can be separated into simpler substances by chemical methods/reactions. While elements cannot be broken down into simpler substances by chemical reactions. You can do a flame test and spectrum analysis to determine whether a solid material is an element or a compound. Check the boiling and/or melting point, color or density. Also check the solid material’s reaction with oxygen, hydrogen, calcium, or various acids. Examine and study its physical chemistry. The element(s) that may be present may be identified by checking the absorption edges from an x-ray spectrum.

most historians agree that gabriel mouton, the vicar of st. paul’s church in lyons, france, is the “founding father” of the metric system. he proposed a decimal system of measurement in 1670. mouton based it on the length of one minute of arc of a great circle of the earth (now called a nautical mile, 1852 meters). he also proposed the swing-length of a pendulum with a frequency of one beat per second as the unit of length (about 25 cm). a pendulum beating with this length would have been fairly easy to produce, thus facilitating the widespread distribution of uniform standards. over the years, his work was revised, improved, and extended by a number of french scientists.

the political sponsor of weights and measures reform in the french revolutionary national assembly was the bishop of autun, better known as talleyrand. under his auspices, the french academy appointed several committees to carry out the work of developing a usable system of weights and measures for france. one of the committees recommended a decimalized measurement system based upon a length equal to one ten-millionth of the length of a quadrant of the earth’s meridian (i.e., one ten-millionth of the distance between the equator and the north pole).