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Old 03-30-2016, 07:57 PM   #1
b-dog
 
Join Date: Nov 2006
Default What if things were made of alchemical mixtures of the four elements?

For example, maybe gold would be earth element mixed with some fire element or mercury is earth element mixed with some water. Or maybe silver is earth element mixed with some amount of air (maybe due to the moon). Everything would just be ratios of mixtures of the elements. Maybe people are mixtures of all four, earth for the body, air for the spirit, fire for the body heat and water for the blood and tears.
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Old 03-30-2016, 08:08 PM   #2
whswhs
 
Join Date: Jun 2005
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Default Re: What if things were made of alchemical mixtures of the four elements?

Alchemically, fire = phlogiston, and combustion = release of phlogiston (as opposed to taking on of oxygen). Since reducing an ore (typically an oxide) involves driving off oxygen, it equates to taking on phlogiston; therefore metals in general are earth infused with fire, which is why they shine, reflect light, conduct heat, and so on.

You could go through the rest of phlogistonic chemistry in the same way, I think.
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Old 03-30-2016, 10:02 PM   #3
Boomerang
 
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Default Re: What if things were made of alchemical mixtures of the four elements?

We don't know how many fundamental particles there are in the real world. The standard model predicts that there are 17 elementary particles. However supersymmetry predicts twice as many (where the extra 17 have not been discovered).

Both models could be wrong, there might be another level to reality containing 4 fundamental particles that combine to form the elementary particles that we are aware of. In other words having everything made from 4 fundamental elements does not have to change how the world works.
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