Lesson 2: Where Are We? (Some Vocabulary and Theory)
Chapter 2
What You Say?
~A potion is a magical mixture composed of magical, mundane, and transitional ingredients.
~Individually, each of these ingredients have their own effects that either help or hinder the human body.
~When we place these ingredients in a cauldron and add both thermal and magical energy, it prompts those ingredients to restructure themselves, to state it simply, and to form new chemicals and compounds.
~MOLECULES: Grouping of two or more atoms.
~MIXTURE: Multiple substances which are mixed together with no reaction taking place.
~A mixture can either be considered heterogeneous or homogeneous.
~HETEROGENEOUS: No uniform substance throughout, but rather many different components combined together.
~HOMOGENEOUS: Cannot visibly see the parts of the mixture but they are still able to be pulled apart without a chemical change.
~COMPOUND: A substance that occurs as a result of a chemical reaction of some sort between different substances.
~A pure compound is known as a homogeneous substance, or rather it has only one discernible ingredient throughout.
~A potion is a mixture of compounds.
~A solution is when there is a smaller amount of a substance, known as the solute, spreads throughout a greater quantity of another substance, known as the solvent.
~Solids, liquids, and gases are composed of basic units known as atoms and molecules.
~SOLID: If particles are packed closely together and moving slowly.
~LIQUID: Packed less closely and experience slightly more dynamic (changing or active) movement.
~GASES: Have the least densely-packed particles of the three, and those particles have very active movement.
~PLASMA: the fourth state of matter. The molecules and atoms are so loosely packed that you typically cannot see them.
~PHASE TRANSITION: The term for when one of these phases passes through to another.
~This happens through a shift in energy, typically shown through a gain or loss of heat, which is the tangible evidence of thermal energy.
~Many ingredients maintain their solid form, but are simply dissolved into such small pieces that they cannot be individually distinguished within the potion.
~Both the heat of your cauldron and the magic from your wand cause the change in energy that provides the catalyst for this reaction.
The Dust Has Only Just Begun to Fall (The Briefest of Looks at Theory)
~The different components combining do not simply react on their own.
~They were combinations of ingredients, each of which achieved a certain related effect.
~In brewing true potions, it requires the energy of heat as well as the magic in your wand in order to initiate a reaction in the ingredients.
~The order you add the ingredients becomes important.
~This reaction causes the bonds of molecules, as mentioned briefly above, to create something brand new.
~A good deal of information about potions theory and how ingredients interact with magic is still a mystery.
