Lesson 1: Objectives and Assumptions
Purpose:
To provide you with an awaremess of the mathematical expectations in this course.
To provide you with experience in making measurements and performing calculations with those measurements.
Assumptions: It is assumed that you can already do the following:
- Demonstrate familiarity with the metric system units (g, L, m) and prefixes (k-,c-, m-).
- State what properties are measured by the units of meters, liters and grams and their derived units.
- Define the prefixes milli-, centi-, and kilo-.
- Estimate the sizes of a meter, centimeter, millimeter, liter, milliliter and a gram.
- Express very large or very small numbers in scientific notation.
- Carry out calculations using numbers in scientific notation.
- Use a calculator to carry out calculations (+, -, x, ÷) using numbers in both decimal and scientific notation formats.
Objectives:
You have completed this lesson when you can:
- Make and record careful observations of materials and objects.
- Define, recognize and use the proper terms for the three states of matter (phases).
- Describe materials using phase, color, clarity, and homogeneity. Describe objects or samples using mass, volume, shape, and temperature.
- Distinguish between intrinsic and extrinsic properties.
- Distinguish between accuracy and precision.
- Distinguish between significant digits and placeholders. Identify significant digits in numbers.
- Make reliable measurements showing appropriate precision and units.
- Show precision in measurements by using the proper number of significant digits.
- Measure the mass of samples using Dial-o-gram (to ±0.01 g) and electronic top-loading (to ± 0.001 g) balances.
- Measure the volume of liquid samples using graduated cylinders. (Reading between the lines.)
- Measure the temperature of liquid and gas samples using Celsius (centigrade) thermometers. (Reading between the lines.)
- Describe the relationship between mass and volume for a given material.
- Explain why mass and volume are considered extrinsic properties and density is considered an intrinsic property.
- Calculate the density of a material given the necessary information about mass and volume.
- Keep track of significant digits and units in calculations. Round off the results of calculations to the appropriate place without being told to do so.
- Convert measurements made with metric units to other metric units.
- Convert between metric and American units given a relationship between the units that can serve as a conversion factor.
- Calculate either the mass or volume of a sample given the other and the density of the material.
Assignments:
Lab Work - Exercises 15, 25, 28-31 in your workbook.
To be turned in -
- The online homework
- Your workbook pages on measurements (Ex. 28, 29, 30) and density (Ex. 31 parts a, b, c, and d) with the graph of mass vs. volume for water and the unknown liquid.
E-mail (hybrid section only): At the end of this first week, send an email message to the instructor with the words "first week" in the subject line describing your first week impressions of taking chemistry on line.
Additional Reading (optional): Find the part of your text that deals with measurements and calculations and read it.
Comments:
If you have had a previous course in chemistry or some other science, you may already be familiar with much of the information presented in this lesson. If so, I recommend that you take the pretests for this lesson to see how much you remember, then focus your attention on those parts of the lesson which need your attention.