Nomenclature is fun! Before a systematic method of naming different chemical substances was established, various compounds were named after people, places, or things. Some examples would be washing soda (sodium carbonate, which is used for softening wash water), and Glauber's salt (sodium sulfate, discovered by J.R. Glauber). Because of the vast number of compounds known to man, numbering into the millions, a system of naming was devised to prevent total confusion from occurring. Chemical nomenclature is the systematic naming of chemical compounds. Compounds can be divided into two basic categories, those which are true binary compounds (they contain only two types of elements), and those which contain more than two different types of elements. There is also a system of naming for organic (carbon-based) compounds. Don't worry, you will find out all about this in a minute...