Lecture #1 Flashcards
what is chemistry?
the study of matter and its properties
what is matter
anything that has mass and volume
how do we investigate matter
by observing its properties
chemists are interested in two kinds of properties:
- physical properties
- chemical properties
what are physical properties?
properties that a substance has by itself without any interaction with another substance
matter exists in 3 physical states
solid, liquid, gas; physical state of a single substance be altered through a process called physical change
what are chemical properties?
properties a substance has when it interacts with or transforms into other substances
what is chemical change?
chemical change usually involves more than one substance; interaction with other substances is a characteristic feature of a chemical change. often irreversible
Scientific Method
- observation
- hypothesis
- experiment
- model (theory)
- further experiment
what is natural law
as a model gets very refined through rigorous further experiments and repeated modifications, it sometimes comes to a point that a majority of scientists accept the theory as truth; at this point the refined model becomes accepted as natural law
what is science?
- endless search for the truth
- work in progress
- not perfect
scientists study properties of matter in two ways:
- qualitative analysis
- quantitative analysis (measurement)
what is qualitative analysis?
- based on qualitative observation
- interested in “what happens”
- ex. color, smell, texture
what is quantitative analysis
- cares about magnitudes of the properties of interest
-ex. mass, length, volume, temperature
Temperature scales
Fahrenheit (F)
Celsius (C)
Kelvin (K)
