Now That We Have Unexpectedly Missed Class on Friday. . .

. . .what should you expect on Monday?

Regents Chemistry: You were scheduled to have a quiz on Friday 28 October.  You will have that quiz on Monday, 31 October.

AP Chemistry: You were scheduled to have a quiz on Monday; you will still have that quiz on Monday, 31 October. 

Appeal: Most students do not follow this blog from what I can tell.  I am hoping that as the year goes on this will change.  If you read this blog over the weekend (28 Oct.-30 Oct.) please pass the word to your classmates that they will have a quiz on Monday.

Mole day, come and gone. . .but still worth celebrating

It is that time of year again. Time to celebrate National Mole Day!  Mole day officially arrives at 6:02 am on October 23rd, but I will likely still be sleeping when the clock strikes 6:02, but then again it will be mole day all day long!  Read on below to find out some interesting facts about the mole.

A mole is similar to the concept of a dozen.  A dozen, of course, means any collection of 12 things.  Similarly, a mole is any collection of 602,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 things.  This is a fantastically large number, so much so in fact that it is hard for us to comprehend how large it is.  The following should help provide a useful context:

If you had a mole of dollars, then you could spend $19,089,294.77 a second, every second, for the next billion years before you ran out.

If you lived for 602,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 seconds you would be 19,089,294,770,000,000 years old.  True, it is not immortality, but perhaps a close second.  If you do live that long, hopefully you won't age accordingly, otherwise you would be like living dust.

Let's see if you understand the mole any better.  Which of the following quantities of water would contain approximately a mole of water molecules?
A)  All the water in all of the oceans combined
B) All the water in all of the great lakes combined
C) An olympic swimming pool full of water
D) A gallon of water
E) A shot glass of water
F) A dew drop of water
G) None of these, all of the water on the planet added together is less than a mole

NOTE: This post was originally written on 21 October, but then computer glitches happened (the ol' fabled curse of the mole?) and iI was not able to publish it again until (sadly) today, a day after mole day.  Apologies to all of my 1 follower out there!

The Nuclear Atom is 100 Years Old!

This week in chemistry we have been discussing the various models of the atom beginning with Dalton's Solid Sphere model.  Part of this story (a rather big part) is Ernest Rutherford's nuclear model, which was first announced in 1911.  In March, the New York Times ran this story to acknowledge the centennial.

The various models of the atom:

Some Chemistry Humor

A former student shared this with me by way of facebook.  I had to post it here.

Thanks to J.P. Wolfe for passing this on.

Nobel Prize in Chemistry Awarded

Israeli chemist, Daniel Schechtman, was awared the the 2011 Nobel Prize in chemistry for his discovery in 1982 of quasi-crystals.  Quasi-crystals are solids in which the atoms are arranged in regular patterns (that is the pattern can be described mathematically), but the pattern does not repeat itself.  So radical is this claim that when Schechtman originally announced his findings he was asked to leave his research team.  You can read the official press release here. 

Chemistry the week of 3 October to 7 October

Regents Chemistry

Topics Covered: Vapor pressure, vapor pressure curves (reference table H).  The Gas Laws.

Quiz: To Be Announced

Lab 3 Heating and Cooling Curves: Period 2/3 Thursday 6 October
                                            Period 3/4  Friday 7 October

Lab 2 Heat of Fusion of Ice due for all classes on 7 October by 3:00Homework: Gas Laws assignment, Due: Thursday 6 October; p. 105, 44-50; pp. 54-56, 47-66.  Must Show work.  DUE: Friday 7 October

AP Chemistry

Topics Covered: Chemical Periodicity.

Quiz: Periodicity - Thursday, 6 October
Take Home Test: Distributed Friday 7 October due Wednesday 12 October

Homework: READ chapter 7 pp. 266-26: 3, 17, 20, 21, 23, 31, 33, 35, 37.   DUE: Thursday 6 October


Let me know if you have questions!

Nobel Prize in Physics awarded

Today the Nobel committee awarded the prize in physics.  The prize was awarded to two American scientists and an Australian who separately concluded that the rate at which the universe is expanding is accelerating.  This is an enormously important discovery.  The big bang theory explains why the universe is expanding, but according to that theory the rate should be slowing down.  The observation that the universe's expansion is accelerating means there is something else at play.  This something else has been called dark energy.  You can read the official press release here.