General Chemistry: Matter, Measurements, and Calculations

Vocabulary flashcards covering key definitions, principles, metric units, and domains from Chapter 1 of General Chemistry.

Chemical Symbol Formatting Rule

A standard chemical symbol consists of one or two letters; if it is a single letter, it is capitalized, and if it is two letters, the first letter is capitalized and the second is lowercase.

Physical Change

A change in the state, shape, or size of matter that does not alter its chemical composition or form a new substance.

Chemical Change

A process in which matter is converted from one type to another, resulting in the formation of a new substance with different chemical properties.

International System of Units (SI Units)

An internationally used system of physical units based on metric base standards, including the kilogram for mass, meter for length, and Kelvin for temperature.

Exact Numbers

Quantities derived from counting objects or defined standards that possess no uncertainty and have an infinite number of significant figures.

Measured Numbers

Numbers obtained using a measuring device that contain uncertainty and require estimating one final digit beyond the smallest marked lines.

Accuracy

How close a measured or experimental value is to the actual, known, or true value.

Precision

How close repeated measurements are to each other, indicating the reproducibility of a result.

Conversion Factor

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

Significant Figures

All digits in a measurement that are known with certainty plus one estimated or uncertain digit, reflecting the precision of the measuring device.

Hypothesis

A tentative explanation of observations that acts as a guide for gathering and checking information through experimentation.

Theory

A well-substantiated, comprehensive, and testable explanation of a particular aspect of nature supported by scientific evidence.

Law of Science

A statement that summarizes a vast number of experimental observations and describes or predicts some aspect of the natural world.

Macroscopic Domain

The realm of chemistry containing items large enough to be sensed directly by human sight or touch, such as bulk liquid water or icebergs.

Microscopic Domain

The realm of chemistry dealing with small entities visited mostly in the imagination or observed via special instruments, such as individual atoms and molecules.

Symbolic Domain

The specialized language used to represent components of the macroscopic and microscopic domains, including chemical symbols, formulas, and phase notations like $(s)$, $(l)$, and $(g)$.

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, possesses a definite volume, and takes the shape of its container.

Gas

A state of matter that takes both the shape and volume of its container.

Plasma

A gaseous state of matter containing an appreciable amount of electrically charged particles, exhibiting unique properties distinct from ordinary gases.

Mass

A measure of the total amount of matter in an object.

Weight

The force that gravity exerts on an object.

Law of Conservation of Matter

A fundamental principle stating that there is no detectable change in the total quantity of matter present during a physical or chemical change.

Element

A pure substance that consists of a single type of atom and cannot be broken down into simpler substances by chemical changes.

Atom

The smallest particle of an element that retains the chemical properties of that element.

Molecule

Two or more atoms held together by strong chemical bonds that move around as a single unit.

Compound

A pure substance composed of two or more different elements chemically bound together in fixed proportions.

Pure Substance

A form of matter with a constant composition and uniform properties throughout.

Heterogeneous Mixture

A mixture with a composition that varies from point to point throughout the sample.

Homogeneous Mixture (Solution)

A mixture that exhibits a uniform composition and appearance throughout its entire volume.

Physical Property

A characteristic of matter that is not associated with a change in its chemical composition, such as density, color, or hardness.

Chemical Property

The capability or inability of matter to undergo a change that converts it into another distinct type of matter, such as flammability or reactivity.

Intensive Property

A property of a substance that depends solely on the nature of the material and is independent of the amount present, such as density or temperature.

Extensive Property

A property of a substance that directly depends on the amount of matter present, such as mass, volume, or total heat.

Density

An intensive physical property defined as the ratio of an object's mass to its volume ($\text{density} = \frac{\text{mass}}{\text{volume}}$).

Kelvin Scale

An absolute SI temperature scale where zero ($0\,\text{K}$) corresponds to absolute zero, water freezes at $273.15\,\text{K}$, and water boils at $373.15\,\text{K}$.