A chemist is a scientist that studies chemistry and wants to know why a chemical change takes place and how it can be controlled. Substances or elements have physical properties. Elements are the simplest forms of anything. The three states of matter on Earth are solids, liquids and gases. Plasma is the fourth state of matter that can be found in outer space.
Chemists use symbols to stand for the elements.
There are 112 elements that have been discovered on Earth, at this time. By using the periodic table, chemists keep records and write simple recipes, or formulas to tell how one substance reacts to another, how much of a substance to mix with another, and what reaction will occur when two substances mix.