18 February: Last night, I began with an explanation of a few lab issues. First, everyone should read the Chromatography lab. We attack that on Monday and Thursday next week. I then wanted to address the disconnect I was seeing in the Alchemy Lab .... especially with the first question. Was gold really made? Well, no ... In order to develop a rationale you are/were urged to consider the ramifications of the the Law of the Conservation of Matter and Energy (LCME).
Once done, we relaunched the conversation about density. Remember, I am not thoroughly concerned about the math, but more about the concept of compactness (or maybe compacted-ness). I want you each to master an understanding as to how two materials of different densities interact .... Which one would sink or which would float.
The only math I think to be very valuable is the understanding about the inverse relationship between the density and the volume. As the volume increases, (assuming a constant mass) the density DEcreases. This relationship helps to explain, the freezing over of a lake or pond. The key point to recall is that water has the greatest density at 4 degrees Celsius. As the top layer of water cools to this temperature, it sinks, revealing another layer of warmer water. As this new layer cools , it sinks.... The process continues, until the entire body of water is approximately 4 degrees Celsius. At this point the top layer of water continues to cool below 4 degrees, and as it approaches freezing the water molecules are arranged in such a way that the volume of that mass of increases. As the volume increases, the density decreases.
It would be remiss of me if I failed to mention the quality of questions and observations on the part of class members. Online is never easy ....but you have made it more interesting, interactive, and fruitful... So, Bravo and Brava! See you on Monday!
8 February 2021: Class tonight began with answering one of the questions asked by a student from the first assignment .... Who is the Father of Chemistry? The answer lead to the work of Antoine Laurent Lavoisier and his wife, Madame Marie-Anne Lavoisier. This included an in depth look at the Law of the Conservation of Matter (often called the Law of the Conservation of Mass).
We introduced the terms reactants and products.
We practiced how the Law of the Conservation of Matter applies to a chemical reaction, with a few questions.
We followed this up with work regarding the terms: mass, weight and volume. This brought us to page 9 of the notes.
1 February 2021: Assignment 1: Curious is due. Be sure you turn in a hard copy of your work, by the start
of class.
Lab for this week will be through a video produced last semester. I will publish this video closer to Thursday 4 February. We will NOT meet for lab after lecture, on Thursday ... as Monday's class did not meet for lab.
Okay during class on 1 Feb we got up through page 5 of the notes. ( We start out slowly, but once the basics are complete we will pick up a little speed) . I really enjoyed the class jumped in with comments or questions .... For my money, it was one of the more interesting online classes in which I have participated. Nice work!
The class began with an attempt to illustrate the role chemistry can play in our lives, and why it is worth studying. With that I tried to illustrate the difference between matter and energy. Using a balloon I tried to show how we may come to understand that anything classified as matter will have mass and volume. If the topic at hand is not an example of matter, then it is most likely, energy. An energy cannot "fill a balloon".
Once done, we relaunched the conversation about density. Remember, I am not thoroughly concerned about the math, but more about the concept of compactness (or maybe compacted-ness). I want you each to master an understanding as to how two materials of different densities interact .... Which one would sink or which would float.
The only math I think to be very valuable is the understanding about the inverse relationship between the density and the volume. As the volume increases, (assuming a constant mass) the density DEcreases. This relationship helps to explain, the freezing over of a lake or pond. The key point to recall is that water has the greatest density at 4 degrees Celsius. As the top layer of water cools to this temperature, it sinks, revealing another layer of warmer water. As this new layer cools , it sinks.... The process continues, until the entire body of water is approximately 4 degrees Celsius. At this point the top layer of water continues to cool below 4 degrees, and as it approaches freezing the water molecules are arranged in such a way that the volume of that mass of increases. As the volume increases, the density decreases.
It would be remiss of me if I failed to mention the quality of questions and observations on the part of class members. Online is never easy ....but you have made it more interesting, interactive, and fruitful... So, Bravo and Brava! See you on Monday!
8 February 2021: Class tonight began with answering one of the questions asked by a student from the first assignment .... Who is the Father of Chemistry? The answer lead to the work of Antoine Laurent Lavoisier and his wife, Madame Marie-Anne Lavoisier. This included an in depth look at the Law of the Conservation of Matter (often called the Law of the Conservation of Mass).
We introduced the terms reactants and products.
We practiced how the Law of the Conservation of Matter applies to a chemical reaction, with a few questions.
We followed this up with work regarding the terms: mass, weight and volume. This brought us to page 9 of the notes.
1 February 2021: Assignment 1: Curious is due. Be sure you turn in a hard copy of your work, by the start
of class.
Lab for this week will be through a video produced last semester. I will publish this video closer to Thursday 4 February. We will NOT meet for lab after lecture, on Thursday ... as Monday's class did not meet for lab.
Okay during class on 1 Feb we got up through page 5 of the notes. ( We start out slowly, but once the basics are complete we will pick up a little speed) . I really enjoyed the class jumped in with comments or questions .... For my money, it was one of the more interesting online classes in which I have participated. Nice work!
The class began with an attempt to illustrate the role chemistry can play in our lives, and why it is worth studying. With that I tried to illustrate the difference between matter and energy. Using a balloon I tried to show how we may come to understand that anything classified as matter will have mass and volume. If the topic at hand is not an example of matter, then it is most likely, energy. An energy cannot "fill a balloon".