Chemblog!

AP: For whatever reason, I had to re-save the file containing the part II answers to the massive practice test. All is good now: the file opens correctly now. Thanks to those who alerted me to that glitch.
Happy Halloween
;)

Excellent visual relating electronic configuration with energies of orbitals of sublevels; click on the element and you will see the electron configuration and enhanced orbital diagram:
http://cwx.prenhall.com/bookbind/pubbooks/petrucci8/chapter9/medialib/0911_3.html

Video link showing Aufbau Principle, Pauli Exclusion Principle, and Hund's rule:
http://cwx.prenhall.com/bookbind/pubbooks/petrucci8/chapter9/medialib/0911_1.html

Honors: here is the link showing the 3-D orbitals OF any given energy SUBlevel:
http://www.shef.ac.uk/chemistry/orbitron/

I meant to mention this after our last exam. It is very good advice that I compiled from my top students from previous years:

Here is an easy way to tell whether or not you are studying:
1. Look at your writing hand
2. Is there a pen or pencil in that hand?
3. Are you solving a problem or writing a description, explanation, illustration, or mnemonic with said pen(cil)?

If you are not physically writing something: a solution, description, explanation, illustration, or mnemonic, (pen in contact with paper), then you are NOT studying. Do not fool yourself. What you ARE doing is the equivalent, in baseball, of "warming up in the bullpen". You are merely pre-studying or preparing to study.
Understand that the most effective way to study and do well on tests is for you to take good notes and then to transcribe and/or apply those notes (and other resources given in class) to questions. Staring at notes or re-reading the text is not studying though it is a necessary prerequisite in order for some students to study.

Follow this advice from those students whom everyone calls "geniuses" (they certainly are geniuses at studying and making it seem like they do not) and you may join that group yourself.
Pass it forward.

some diligent students have sent me their sample responses to some of the questions that are (in very similar form) on the next test...while keeping their responses anonymous, I will post my corrections to them in a file on the webpage. This way, we can all learn from each other's responses. Technology...excelsior!

I got a little carried away explaining question #7 of the "Density/Measurement" Lab so it turned into an answer rather than just a question; so, you do not have to add anything to that question/answer in your writeup.
"Huzzah", I say.

As I announced in class on Friday, we will have covered enough material by Tuesday to have an exam on Wednesday, Day 1 (Oct. 26). Practice your DRAWINGS, descriptions, and explanations and show them to me (or email them to me) BEFORE the test next week and I will tell you how great they are (or specifically what is wrong with a given part of your answer).
My impression is that all of you understand the Bohr Atomic Model well; you also "get" the photoelectric effect evidence and conclusions (except some still confuse intensity with energy PER photon) and you can relate that to Planck's equation, however, I think that some of you are fearful about the Blackbody Radiation evidence and conclusions.
To try to allay your fears and focus your study, l will reiterate what I said in class: you do NOT have to explain or even understand HOW Planck discovered that light must exist as quanta (particles/packets of specific energy). Do NOT WORRY about that. You do have to relate that graphical data to Planck's equation E = hf ( or E = hc/(wavelength) ), that is,

1.) to see how Planck could tell that a high-frequency/short wavelength quantum (photon) MUST have MORE energy than a low frequency/(long wavelength) quantum...

which involves showing 2.) why few to no x-ray quanta (photons) were emitted when the blackbody was at a low temperature but that some (or more than the number of photons emitted before) x-ray quanta (photons) were emitted when the blackbody was then heated to a higher temperature.

remember, the more total energy that a substance absorbs, the MORE total energy the substance can emit.

Furthermore, the Blackbody Radiation experiment, though it is monumental in its significance to understanding the atom, only has two VERY tiny conclusions:
-light has a particle nature
-the minimum amount of energy of a given type of "light" is a "quantum"/photon (which equals hf)...so, any amount of light energy must be a whole-number multiple of a single quantum of energy (of that particular type of light) e.g. 5 photons of energy of a specific color of orange light has exactly 5 times as much energy as 1 photon of that specific orange light but it is impossible to have half of one quantum of energy of that specific orange light (there are NO fractional photons, only whole particles).
(in fact, the minimum amount of ANY type of energy is a QUANTUM of that form of energy, FYI)

You may find the following links very helpful:

AP: Thermo Unit animated tutorials: http://cwx.prenhall.com/bookbind/pubbooks/petrucci8/chapter7/deluxe.html

click on the "Student Tutorials" link on the left side of that page and enjoy!

Honors: Atomic Theory Unit: http://cwx.prenhall.com/bookbind/pubbooks/petrucci8/chapter9/deluxe.html

click on the "Student Tutorials" link on the left side of that page and view the tutorials up to and including the Bohr Model (highly interactive, that one).

you can view the remaining ones next week when we get to the wave-mechanical (the ultimate!) model of the atom.

Honors- lock it in: we will have our next Atomic Concepts unit exam next Wednesday (and possibly Thursday also). The exam will cover material from when we started our notes on electromagnetic radiation/waves through what is taught next Tuesday (we should be just about done with the wave-mechanical model of the atom by then).
So, there is no quiz tomorrow but you will hand in previously assigned hw (see the previous posting).
The density/measurement lab writeup is still due Monday.
I can tell that most (I hope that all) of you are catching on to the Bohr Model and the Photoelectric Effect based on your responses/ lack of glazed eyes today.

AP: back to thermochem tomorrow...if I can get you through Hess's Law for the weekend, the unit is practically over. We'll see... I'll post a descriptive chem set (with answers) for tonight because we won't have class time for it tomorrow so check you answers.
p.s. during your test today, a student from last year's AP Chem class came in to tell me that, due to his 5 on the AP exam, his application fee to a certain college was waived. Yesssss. In many ways, it pays to get a 5 and we are on course to attain such an achievement.

On question 2a, the INCORRECT symbol is given for the isotope with the mass number of 108 and the atomic number of 47. Element 47 is Ag which is "argentum" or silver. Please make the correction. Also, for those who printed out the worksheet file early, I edited out and I am not counting the last two questions on the worksheet; those are nuclear physics questions that have to do with carbon emitting an electron (beta particle). we won't learn that nuclear physics material until we are near the end of the course.
No test for Honors tomorrow. Your hw is due Friday; I will collect the hw that has been assigned since 10/06 (starting with the Chapter 4.1 outline) EXCEPT for the orange review book hw.

For tonight, Honors hw is to answer the text questions at the end of section 4.1.


AP: see you @ 7:30PM for our Gas Unit exam. The exam will last until our evacuation drill at 9:00 AM so there will only be 90 minutes worth of questions on the test. When we return at 9:35 AM, we will do the solubility rules lab and we will preview our next (Mw of a gas) lab.

I'll be in Room 229 at 7:30 AM tomorrow ( Wed. Day3 ) if you'd like to come for extra help.

AP: next unit test is on day 4 as usual...I will review a couple of the kinetic-molecular theory explanations of the gas laws to show you the kind of detail required in your test explanations.
After that, more and hotter thermo.
Also, for any questions involving equation writing, you are responsible for knowing the reaction types that we have done so far in class i.e double replacement with precipitate, gas forming reactions (gas unit!), single replacement, combustion, etc. ( so that mixture problem with the synthesis products MgCO3 and SrCO3 would NOT be a reaction that you have to be able to predict yet, though you probably could have correctly guessed those products ).

Honors: do that review worksheet (answers won't be posted until after I collect them from you on Friday) and check out the notes, video, and powerpoint for our current part of the unit. Also, the text section 4.2 gives an overview of the experiments that we have been discussing...
Tomorrow, more photoelectric effect and then we finally get to the Bohr Model of the atom.

Cheers.

If you are having trouble finding the "Safety in the Chemistry Laboratory" reading for your first lab report, the article is in your lab manual starting on page ix.

Make sure that you bring your accurately completed lab IN a lab folder (design of your choice) and write your name in BIG BOLD letters on the cover. You may decorate your lab folder; express yourself!

I have Sharpies in many different colors if you want to use them to write on your folder tomorrow.


Starting this week, especially since we have a lot of material to cover, I will put up partial class notes to download and preview prior to class; you will just have to make additional annotations to them in class. You are still required to take good descriptive notes. The first exam demonstrated the importance of having good listening skills (the number ONE skill of great (Honors) students) and complete, accurate notes.

I will put up the first set of notes by tomorrow night. As usual, I will also post the smartboard notes from class.

Looking forward to telling you some strange and sublime yet accurate information in class this week.

For hw, continue to work on the practice exams for the next day 4 test. We will finish chapter 5 tomorrow for sure.
I uploaded a "Question 4" reaction sheet (the link is on the class website by the AP Reference Tables link) which has dozens of questions arranged by reaction type (which is how we have been attacking these question sets). Study this file and try a couple of questions of each type.

Illustrations of various gas laws along with graphs from today's lecture:
http://cwx.prenhall.com/petrucci/medialib/media_portfolio/06.html

Continue to work on the worksheets and the lab writeup tonight. The lab writeup is due on Monday along with all of the worksheets that I handed out last week. You can staple those items together as your first lab.
The density lab writeup will be posted soon and then I'll let you know about that due date.

Also, carefully read your answers to your first atomic concepts exam and make corrections, if you can. We will continue to analyze that exam tomorrow in order to improve your future performances.

Here is the link from today's Honors class:
http://www.colorado.edu/physics/2000/applets/twoslitsa.html

Constructive and destructive interference interactive animation:
http://vsg.quasihome.com/interfer.htm

this one shows the wave-fronts constructively and destructively interfering:
http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/primer/java/scienceopticsu/interference/doubleslit/

This is a great no-pressure test that should be a good test-taking/learning experience.
The question types are identical to those on the SAT; also, you get to take the PSAT as a soph and junior (a great idea!) at our school.
You also get the test booklet within a few weeks as well as your score report with how you did on each question. That is great for review.
If you have questions about particular problems on the test, just ask me later this week (not during the test, haha).
See you all on Thursday ( when I hope to return the Honors classes' first unit exam - so far the high score is a 96 and the low score is HALF of that ). The AP class destroyed their last test (that means that they did really well).
There will be NO Honors tests or quizzes this week though we will generally have a test or quiz once every week.

Still grading today's AP exam and I just want to stop and smell the roses. Since I know what is upcoming in this course, I can aver that today's test was one of the hardest of the year.
After grading four of your exams, I am just awestruck...and I mean that in a GOOD way!

I hope that the remainder to be graded are nearly as good.

You all should teach classes on how to be successful students, no joke. Wait a minute, I think that I could make a fortune off of that idea. Consider this blog my patent on said idea.

...(calling Trump)

Just a reminder regarding my advice based on the last quiz analysis:
1. Don't use pronouns on the test. That is a general rule because most English majors don't even know how to use pronouns unambiguously.
For example, "it was repelled by them" would result in no credit.
2. Avoid vague terms like "some", "many", "several". Chemistry demands that you be much more specific! If you know that only one in eight-thousand alpha particles was deflected at an obtuse angle by the gold atoms, then state EXACTLY that. Don't say that "some" were deflected or "many" were deflected. That statement does not give information that precisely coincides with the atomic model derived from the experiment.
3. Write all UNITS and show cancellations in all of your calculations. Most of the credit in any applied math problem comes from the correct setup shown whether or not you hit the right calculator buttons.
4. Remember, your notes should be the primary source of study for the test (assuming that you took good notes in class) followed closely by the worksheets and then the videos, powerpoints and the textbook.

Come to class on time. You will be writing for the entire period. Don't forget your scientific (not graphing) calculator, paper, two pens (different color inks) and two pencils. I will provide the reference tables.
Good luck tomorrow. I hope that you all do well; if so, I can grade the tests in much less time!
Mr.Cicale

I hope that you all enjoy the extended weekend.
We have a 30 minute Honors class on Tuesday and then an Honors Atomic Concepts Exam on Wednesday, Day 3. You should come to extra help on Tuesday afternoon and/or Wednesday before school in Room 229 if you are not bulletproof on everything since our last quiz. Your performance will influence your first quarter progress report which is mailed next week.
I have posted several worksheets with solutions so make sure that you do them, check your answers and then make sure that you clarify anything that you are not sure of.


AP: We have a nice, fat hour on Tuesday which is quite good. That period, we will finish covering most of the material for Thursday's Unit exam which will be a mix of past stoichiometry questions and our current gas unit material. I have posted two more practice tests and hw with solutions so get a jump on those because it will take some time to do and check the tests.

'til Tuesday.