Intro to Chemistry

Question 1

What is matter?

Answer 1

Matter is a name given to anything that takes up space and has mass.

Question 2

What is all matter made of?

Answer 2

Atoms

Question 3

What 3 subatomic particles make up and atom?

Answer 3

Protons, Neutrons and Electrons

Question 4

What is the charge of a proton?

Answer 4

A proton has a positive charge

Question 5

What is the charge of a neutron?

Answer 5

A neutron has a neutral charge

Question 6

What is the charge of a electron?

Answer 6

negative charge

Question 7

What is the symbol for a proton?

Answer 7

p or +

Question 8

What is the relative mass of a proton?

Answer 8

1 amu (atomic mass units)

Question 9

What is the symbol for a neutron?

Answer 9

n or 0

Question 10

What is the relative mass of a neutron?

Answer 10

1 amu

Question 11

What is the symbol for an electron?

Answer 11

e or -

Question 12

What is the relative mass of a electron?

Answer 12

1/1800 the mass of a proton

Question 13

Where is the mass of an atom centered around?

Answer 13

The nucleus

Question 14

Describe the composition of an atom

Answer 14

Atoms are mostly empty space, with electrons existing in a cloud around the outside of the nucleus.

Question 15

What does the period table contain?

Answer 15

Every known element with a chemical symbol and it contains all the information you need about the structure of each atom.

Question 16

What is a chemical symbol?

Answer 16

The letter that represents the element

Question 17

What is an atomic number?

Answer 17

represents the number of protons in an element. (note: in a neutral element, protons and electrons are equal in number, so atomic number also provides the number of electrons)

Question 18

What is atomic mass?

Answer 18

Represents the number of protons and neutrons in the nucleus.
(note: atomic mass is rounded to the nearest whole number to calculate neutrons) Eg: 12(atomic mass) -6 (atomic number)= 6 neutrons

Question 19

What are Isotopes?

Answer 19

isotopes are members of a family of an element that all have the same number of protons but different numbers of neutrons..

Question 20

What are differences between isotopes?

Answer 20

While all isotopes of a given element have almost the same chemical properties, they have different atomic masses ad physical properties.

Question 21

How are electrons arranged around an atom?

Answer 21

Electrons are arranged in shells around the nucleus.

Question 22

What is electrons configuration?

Answer 22

The number of electrons in each shell in a atom is its electron configuration.

Question 23

How do electron shells work?

Answer 23

Each shell can hold a maximum number of electrons and must be filled before the next shell can accept electrons.

Question 24

List the maximum amount of electrons the 1-4 shell can hold.

Answer 24

1st-2 electrons
2nd-8 electrons
3rd-18 electrons
4th-32 electrons

Question 25

What are Ions?

Answer 25

Ions are a variation on an element

Question 26

What is a property of ions?

Answer 26

-Ions have the same number of protons and neutrons but a different number of electrons.
-This changes the element from being neutral (balanced positive and negative charges) to a charged element, called an ion.

Question 26

Can a element loose electrons or gain them?

Answer 26

An element can gain or lose electrons from the outer shell, depending on its electron configuration as all elements want to have a full outer shell.

Question 26

What happens when an atom loses electrons?

Answer 26

When an atom loses electrons, it becomes more positively changed and is called a cation.

Question 27

What happens when an toms gains electrons?

Answer 27

It becomes more negatively charged and is called an anion.

Question 27

What does ground state mean?

Answer 27

Electrons of an atom usually exist in shells that leave the atom with the lowest possible energy.

Question 27

What does exciting electrons do?

Answer 27

pushes them to other shells, and after fall back releasing energy as light
-if done with a flame a colour will show during this process due to the energy gap between the ground and excited states of the electrons
-small gaps correspond with a red colour, as this is the low energy end of the spectrum. Violet is associated with a large energy gap