What is the empirical definition of oxidation and reduction? What do they historically mean?
Oxidation is the loss of electrons. Reduction is the gain of electrons. Historically Oxidation meant the gain of Oxygen and Reduction meant the loss of Oxygen but this definition was revised so that the words oxidation and reduction could be applied to more processes. The gain of Oxygen still means oxidation and the loss of oxygen still mean reduction however it the loss of electrons also means oxidation and the gain of electrons also means reduction so more has been added on to the definition but the old definition has not been discarded.
