Antoine Lavoisier · Science
In the <em>Traité élémentaire de chimie</em> (1789), Lavoisier defined an element operationally - as the last point that analysis can reach - and published a table of simple substances. His honest errors (counting light and caloric among the elements) teach as much as his triumphs, and the book itself constituted the science it described.
You learned that Lavoisier defined elements as the last point analysis can reach - substances not yet decomposed - and published a table of simple substances that (wrongly) included light and caloric and listed several compounds as simple. Explain the operational definition and why teaching its errors honestly matters.
Leads to Robert Boyle.
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