AP Chemistry Update

Today students began learning about Chapter 6 (Electronic Structure and the Periodic Table). Major concepts of this chapter include the following:

• properties of light (such as wavelength and frequency)
• bright line emission spectra for hydrogen (and other atoms)
• electronic transitions (ground state, excited states)
• quantum mechanical model
• quantum numbers
• atomic orbitals
• electron configuration and the filling of sublevels
• orbital diagrams
• electron arrangements in ions (including a special "first in, first out" rule that applies to transition metal cations, p. 150)
• periodic trends in atomic properties, including atomic radius, ionic radius, ionization energy, and electronegativity

The homework for Wednesday's class is to answer the following problems from the textbook on pp. 157-159:
1, 2, 5, 6, 9, 10, 17, 18, 27, 28, 37, 38, 49, 50, 51, 52, 55, 56

AP Chemistry Update

Today in class students got answers to the Chapter 5 Practice Test. If you need to see a copy of these answers, you can look at this document.

The homework for Monday is to complete the Chapter 5 Test. Please e-mail me if you have any questions.

AP Chemistry Update

Today in class students reviewed some of the answers to the FRQ's related to Chapter 5 (Gases). If you need to see the answers to these FRQ's, you can look at this document. If you want to see a PowerPoint slide show that explains how the answers were obtained, you can click here to watch the slide show.

Students watched me perform a demonstration of how to calculate the molar mass of a volatile liquid. Even though I obtained rather poor results (i.e., 50% error!) from this experiment, it was still a decent thing to do. I wanted to emphasize that the molar mass of a gas is equal to (gRT)/(PV). You can see a YouTube video of another chemistry class doing this experiment by clicking here.

Students did a lab today involving the reaction of magnesium with hydrochloric acid to produce hydrogen gas. Based on the data collected from this experiment, students were able to calculate the value of the ideal gas law constant, R.

The homework for Friday's class is to complete the Chapter 5 Practice Test, which can be found here.

I will give out the take-home test for Chapter 5 on Friday, and it will be due on Monday.

E-mail me if you have any questions.

AP Chemistry Update

Today students were working on concepts from Chapter 5. After finishing up our discussion of the Chapter 5 Classwork from Friday's class, I explained the answers to the AP Multiple Choice Questions (MCQ's) related to Chapter 5. If you need to see the answers to these MCQ's you can look at this document.

These are some of the important concepts that were discussed in class today:

• If two gases are at the same temperature, then they have the same average kinetic energy.
• If two gases at the same temperature have different molar masses, the one that has a smaller molar mass has the largest average molecular speed.
• Gases will be most likely to deviate from ideal behavior at low temperatures and high pressures.
• The volume of one mole of gas at standard temperature and pressure (273 K, 1 atm) is 22.4 L.

The homework for Wednesday's class is to answer the Free Response Questions (FRQ's) related to chapter 5.
E-mail me if you have any questions.

AP Chemistry Update

Today students were working on problems related to Chapter 5 (Gases). The homework for Monday is to finish up the worksheet from class and to answer the AP MCQ's related to Chapter 5. E-mail me if you have any questions. Have a good weekend!

AP Chemistry Update

The answers to the Chapter 4 Practice Test have been posted here. Your Chapter 4 take-home Test is due on Wednesday Morning, October 19th. Please e-mail me if you have any questions.

AP Chemistry Update

This week was definitely affected by schedule changes. We didn't have class on Monday because of the teacher work day, and we had about 10 juniors absent on Wednesday for the PSAT. So today was a good day to spend time discussing the FRQ's related to Chapter 4. The PowerPoint file that explains all of the solutions to these FRQ can be found here. However, if you just want to check your answers, you can look at this document.
The homework for Monday's class is to do the Chapter 4 Practice Test, which can be found here.
I will be giving you the Chapter 4 Test as a take-home test on Monday. This test will be due on Wednesday morning, October 19th.

AP Chemistry Update

Today I presented the answers to the AP MCQ related to Chapter 4. If you need to see the answers and explanations to these questions, you can click here.

I handed out a packet filled with AP FRQ related to Chapter 4. You should be working on this until we meet again. Some of you will take the PSAT on Wednesday, so you will not see me until Friday, October 14th. PLEASE do your very best to get all the FRQ's answered by then.

E-mail me with any questions. Have a good weekend.

AP Chemistry Update

On Monday students had the opportunity to do a bit more practice with balancing redox equations. This corresponds to section 4.4 of Chapter 4 in the textbook. If you would like to see the PowerPoint notes that explain all of the example problems from the Chapter 4 Review Guide, you can click here.

If you would like to check your answers to all of the homework problems that have been assigned from Chapter 4 in the textbook, you can click here. Note that I have also included the answers to a few odd-numbered problems from the textbook that were NOT assigned for homework. So you should now have plenty of resources to guide you through the various concepts in Chapter 4.

On Monday we did not get a chance to discuss the AP MCQ related to Chapter 4. We will go over this soon.

The homework for Wednesday is to answer the Pre-Lab questions for the redox titration experiment. If you need a copy of these Pre-Lab questions, you can click here.