A successful CHEM 200 student gets a jump on the semester
by working at a steady pace from the very first day of class.
Chapter One contains nice explanations and directions as far
as problem solving is concerned...an important facet of CHEM 200.
Also included are important discussions about units and measurements--
two more topics that re-appear throughout the term.
Chapter 1 Outline
1.1 Some Fundamental Definitions
1.2 Chemical Arts and the Origins of Modern Chemistry
1.3 The Scientific Approach: Developing a Model
Breakdown, Brief Discussion & Help With Sample Problems: What You Should Know
1.1 Some Fundamental Definitions
...matter; the three states of mattter; physical and chemical properties; and kinetic and potential energy are the terms to know here
1.2 Chemical Arts and the Origins of Modern Chemistry
...a bit of the history of chemistry is discussed here...not much else
1.3 The Scientific Approach: Developing a Model
...the old junior high school order of things for practicing scientists is reviewed (observation, hypothesis, experiment, and model)
...this section is extremely important for all CHEM 200 students, but especially important for students who, for one reason or another, have had difficulty with previous chemistry courses (at SIU and elsewhere). In a word, CHEM 200 is all about problems.
Important concepts discussed in this section include units and conversion factors...two tools that CHEM 200 students utilize in their efforts to solve problems.
The section "How to Solve Chemistry Problems" (beginning on page 15) is one that students often overlook. The section gives step-by-step instructions on how the sample problems within the text are displayed...and suggests that students should develop a similar habit when solving problems on their own. Specifically, the outline is...(1) problem; (2) plan; (3) solution; (4) check; and (5) comment.
These steps are good advice for learning the mechanics of problem solving in CHEM 200 as well as other science courses.
click here for a few words about SAMPLE PROBLEM 1.2 (page 16)
1.5 Measurement in Scientific
Study
...this section is also extremely important for CHEM 200 students, because of the important fundamental concepts that are discussed within it--length, area, volume, mass, weight, density, temperature, and time.
Not only are those concepts important, but the ways that they are qualified and quantified are also important...as exemplified by Tables 1.2, 1.3, and 1.4. CHEM 200 students should know all of what is found in 1.2 (the SI base units for mass, length, time, temperature, current, amount of substance, and luminous intensity--kilogram, meter, second, kelvin, ampere, mol, and candela, respectively) and 1.3 (the important metric prefixes).
On the other hand, the metric-to-English equivalent portion of Table 1.4 is not required knowledge--most modern calculators have those conversion factors built in.
click here for a few words about SAMPLE PROBLEM 1.3 (page 21)
One important concept to grasp...is that when a quantity such as 10 centimeters (10 cm) is cubed (multiplied times itself three times; i.e. 10 cm times 10 cm times 10 cm)...that the number ten is multiplied times itself three times...AND that the unit cm is multiplied times itself, too. So that a box that is 10 cm high, 10 cm wide, and 10 cm deep has a volume of 1000 cubic centimeters.
Another way of illustrating this point is to realize that a box 1 foot high, 1 foot deep, and 1 foot wide has a volume of 1 cubic foot...but that same box has a volume of (12 x 12 x 12) 1728 cubic inches.
click here for a few words about SAMPLE PROBLEM 1.5 (page 23)
1.6 Uncertainty in
Measurement: Significant Figures
...this section is one of the most difficult for CHEM 200 students to understand, in part because, in the view of many, the concepts of uncertainty, accuracy, precision, significant figures and scientific notation are best discussed and understood in the context of laboratory experiments. Indeed, an early experiment in CHEM 201 deals exclusively with these topics.
Why is this section important and necessary? For one thing, the use of scientific calculators has created a false impression of the meaningfulness of the "answers" obtained in many types of experiments. Just because a calculator says that the answer to a given problem is 1.2345678...that doesn't necessarily mean that the scientist who carried out the experiment has any real idea whether the measured quantity is 1.2345678, or whether it is 1.2345672...UNLESS the obtained data are accurate to the nearest +/- 0.0000001.
Student mastery of this section, therefore, requires genuine understanding of what it is that scientists do (i.e. experiments). As such, laboratory experiments provide an essential component of the learning in this area.
exercises such as numbers 1.18, 1.37, 1.45, and 1.59 are all straightforward problems of the type that are often found on CHEM 200 exams