How to get or understand a sample in chemistry without knowing its chemical name or compound or formula
Learning the unknown sample is called analysis and is a subject of analytical chemistry.
But your question is probably not about this.
You mean &quot;can i guess something without knowing chemistry at all?&quot;
And answer is yes!
Look at the food salt.
Do you know it without any knowledge of chemistry? Yes, you do!
But how much?
You know what it looks like,
you know its taste,
you know that it's soluble in water...
and probably that's all.
Now suppose you have a sample of something not found yet in human history.
You can easily know it similar to knowing food salt. Just check:
How it looks like?
What it's taste?
Drop it in water - is it soluble?
Now you &quot;know&quot; this substance just like you &quot;know&quot; food salt, without any chemistry!
But I guess you already suspect that there is something wrong with this knowledge.
It's very incomplete.
Chemist can learn more about food salt or your magic unknown sample.
Most of that serious knowledge require understanding of sample structure
at microscopic levels, and using theories that connect the structure to properties.
That was all about &quot;knowing the substance&quot;.
Another question is knowing what a substance is, which is rather philosophy than chemistry.
Does a substance exist? What is existance? Does a substance have hidden fundamental purpose? Was it &quot;created&quot; or &quot;appeared by itself&quot;?
These questions are probably more important than chemistry, and you may be the one who one day will guess some answers here.