Principles of General, Organic, & Biological Chemistry - Chapter 1

Vocabulary flashcards covering the introductory concepts of matter, measurement, significant figures, and chemical properties as presented in Chapter 1 of the CHE 1310 lecture notes.

Chemistry

The study of matter—its composition, properties, and transformations.

Matter

Anything that has mass and takes up volume.

Solid

A state of matter that has a definite volume, maintains its shape regardless of its container, and features particles that lie close together in a regular three-dimensional array.

Liquid

A state of matter that has a definite volume, takes the shape of its container, and contains particles that are close together but can randomly move around.

Gas

A state of matter that has no definite shape or volume and contains particles that move randomly and are separated by a distance much larger than their size.

Physical Properties

Characteristics that can be observed or measured without changing the composition of the material, such as boiling point, melting point, solubility, color, and odor.

Physical Change

A process that alters the material without changing its composition.

Chemical Properties

Characteristics that determine how a substance can be converted into another substance.

Chemical Change

A chemical reaction that converts one substance into another.

Pure Substance

Matter composed of only a single component (atom or molecule) with a constant composition that cannot be broken down by a physical change.

Mixture

Matter composed of more than one component with varying composition that can be separated into its components by physical changes.

Element

A pure substance that cannot be broken down into simpler substances by a chemical change.

Compound

A pure substance formed by chemically joining two or more elements.

Mass

A measure of the amount of matter in an object, with the gram $(g)$ as the base unit in the metric system.

Weight

The force that matter feels due to gravity.

Giga- (G)

A metric prefix meaning billion, represented by the numerical value $1,000,000,000$ or the scientific notation $10^9$.

Nano- (n)

A metric prefix meaning billionth, represented by the numerical value $0.000000001$ or the scientific notation $10^{-9}$.

Significant Figures

All the digits in a measured number including one estimated digit.

Exact Number

A number that results from counting objects or is part of a definition and contains no uncertainty.

Inexact Number

A number that results from a measurement or observation and contains some uncertainty.

Scientific Notation

A systems where a number is written as $y \times 10^x$, where $y$ is a coefficient between $1$ and $10$, and $x$ is an exponent.

Conversion Factor

A term that converts a quantity in one unit to a quantity in another unit, typically written as an equality or a fraction.

Temperature

A measure of how hot or cold an object is, commonly measured in Degrees Fahrenheit $(\text{°F})$, Degrees Celsius $(\text{°C})$, or Kelvin $(K)$.

Density

A physical property that relates the mass of a substance to its volume, calculated as $\text{density} = \frac{\text{mass (g)}}{\text{volume (mL or cc)}}$.

Specific Gravity

A unitless quantity that compares the density of a substance with the density of water at the same temperature.