General Chemistry - Chapter 1: Essential Ideas Flashcards

Vocabulary practice flashcards generated from General Chemistry Chapter 1 lecture notes covering central definitions, classifications of matter, physical and chemical properties, SI units, and measurement parameters.

Chemistry

The study of the composition, properties, and interactions of matter.

Hypothesis

A tentative explanation of observations.

Law of Science

A statement that summarizes a vast number of experimental observations, describing or predicting some facet of the natural world.

Theory

A well-substantiated, comprehensive, testable explanation of a particular aspect of nature.

Macroscopic Domain

The realm of everyday chemistry involving objects large enough to be sensed directly by human sight or touch.

Microscopic Domain

 The domain of chemistry visited mostly in the imagination or observed through a microscope, dealing with small components such as atoms and molecules.

Symbolic Domain

The domain of chemistry containing the specialized language used to represent components of the macroscopic and microscopic domains, such as chemical symbols and formulas.

Matter

Anything that occupies space and has mass.

Solid

A state of matter that is rigid, possesses a definite shape, and has a fixed volume.

Liquid

A state of matter that flows, forms a horizontal surface, takes the shape of its container, and has a fixed volume.

Gas

A state of matter that expands to fill both the shape and volume of its container.

Plasma

A gaseous state of matter that contains an appreciable amount of electrically charged particles and possesses unique properties distinct from ordinary gases.

Mass

A measure of the amount of matter in an object.

Weight

Refers to the force that gravity exerts on an object.

Law of Conservation of Matter

States that there is no detectable change in the total quantity of matter present when matter converts from one type to another during chemical or physical changes.

Element

A type of pure substance that cannot be broken down into simpler substances by chemical changes.

Atom

The smallest particle of an element that has the properties of that element and can enter into a chemical combination.

Molecule

Consists of two or more atoms connected by strong forces known as chemical bonds.

Pure Substance

A form of matter that has a constant composition.

Compound

A pure substance that can be broken down into simpler substances by chemical changes and consists of two or more types of elements chemically bonded.

Mixture

Composed of two or more types of matter that can be present in varying amounts and can be separated by physical changes.

Homogeneous Mixture

A mixture (also called a solution) that exhibits a uniform composition and appears visually the same throughout.

Heterogeneous Mixture

A mixture with a composition that varies from point to point.

Classification of Matter

The system of categorizing matter into pure substances (elements and compounds) or mixtures (heterogeneous and homogeneous) based on variable composition and separability.

Physical Property

A characteristic of matter that is not associated with a change in its chemical composition.

Physical Change

A change in the state or properties of matter without any accompanying change in its chemical composition.

Chemical Property

The change of one type of matter into another type, or the inability to undergo such a change.

Chemical Change

A change that produces one or more types of matter that differ from the matter present before the change, altering its chemical composition.

Extensive Property

A property of matter that depends on the amount of matter present.

Intensive Property

A property of matter that does not depend on the amount of matter present.

Meter ($m$)

The SI base unit of length, defined as the distance light travels in a vacuum in $\frac{1}{299,792,458}$ of one second.

Kilogram ($kg$)

The SI base unit of mass, defined by a standard cylinder made of platinum-iridium alloy.

Kelvin ($K$)

The SI base unit of temperature, belonging to an absolute temperature scale where $0\,K$ represents absolute zero.

Volume

The measure of the amount of space occupied by an object, with a standard SI unit of cubic meter ($m^3$).

Density

The ratio of the mass of a sample of a substance to its volume.

Exact Number

A number derived from counting objects or from defined quantities that is completely free from measurement uncertainty.

Significant Figures

All of the digits in a measurement representing data or results that are known with certainty plus one estimated uncertain digit.

Accuracy and Precision

Accuracy refers to how close a measurement is to the true or accepted value, whereas precision refers to how close repeated measurements are to each other.

Dimensional Analysis

A mathematical approach based on the premise that the units of quantities must be subjected to the same mathematical operations as their associated numbers.

Conversion Factor

A ratio of two equivalent quantities expressed with different measurement units, used to convert from one unit to another.